


Unexpected Heat

by KinkMemeMary



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Bonding, Dubious Consent, Ear play, Face-Fucking, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Panic Attacks, arseholes to lovers, ear fondling, fuck the chantry, infertility anxiety, not necessarily inferitility
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-01-29 03:43:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 32,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12622428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinkMemeMary/pseuds/KinkMemeMary
Summary: Circle mages are raised to believe that all mages are betas. Anders believes that he is a beta and he has never experienced a heat... until now.Anders and Fenris have split from the group to prepare an ambush when Fenris detects the unmistakable scent of an omega going into heat. Over Anders' protests that such is impossible, Fenris tries to pull him away. But alone in the tunnels, neither man can resist their instincts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So... I've been wanting to write some a/b/o for a while now, but I'm not allowed to start another long fic. Tonight I just had to write some smut. This chapter is a little smutty. Next chapter will be a lot.
> 
> Dub-con for a/b/o and heats, but Fenris does try hard not to take advantage and Anders is *very* eager.

The heady smell of musk washed over Fenris in a wave that made him pause. He glanced behind them - an empty dark tunnel - and peered ahead towards the torch light of the slavers.

Nothing. And they were yet too far away for the scent of any captured omegas to be this strong.

Anders turned and frowned at him.

"Come on," he said. "Hawke needs us in position."

"Mage," he said, looking the other man up and down, reassessing what he knew of him. "Are you going into heat?"

Anders gave a bark of laughter. "What? Are you kidding? Of course not. I'm a beta, all mages are. Surely even you know that."

Fenris blinked. How could he think such a thing? "No, mage," he said, carefully. "They are not. Who told you that?"

"Stop pissing about," the mage said, irritation showing in his voice. "We don't have time for this. You were the one who dragged us down here. I don't know who fed you this nonsense, but I'm a healer. I know about bodies. Mages can't be omegas, and I think I'd know if I was one."

He really believed that, Fenris realised. Yet he knew in the Imperium mages were as likely to be alphas or omegas as anyone else. Danarius had been an alpha - his knot an unwelcome presence Fenris could not have ignored if he'd wanted to - but he'd seen mage omegas, too. Mostly slaves kept for breeding, and rarely in the Magisterium, but not infrequently among the Altuses bidding for the magister's favour.

And there was that scent, getting stronger all the time. He was absolutely sure it was coming from Anders.

The mage had started walking on without him, but he knew now that he couldn't allow him to get any closer to the slavers ahead.

"Mage, stop," he said. "This is important," he hissed, grabbing Anders' arm. "You are going into heat. I can smell it on you. They will smell it too, and you'll be too distracting for me to protect you. We have to turn back." He began pulling Anders back down the tunnel, not allowing himself to be slowed by Anders' efforts to pull away.

"Stop it!" Anders said.

"Shh! They will hear you!"

"I'm not-!" the mage lowered his voice. "I'm not going into heat. I don't know why you think I am, but... For fuck's sake, Fenris!" He threw his weight into yanking back his arm, pulling Fenris off balance.

Fenris lost his grip, but span around to pin the mage between his arms so he couldn't get away and do something stupid.

The scent was stronger close up like this.

Something like discomfort passed over Anders' features. He might not understand what was happening to him, but some part of his body was responding to having an alpha in such close proximity.

"I don't know how you don't know this," Fenris said, "But we don't have time to discuss it." He leant in close to Anders' neck, willing down the salivation that arose at the thought of an omega's scent gland so close, then he let his own scent flow at the mage: pure domination. Something he was quite unused to doing himself. Something that would have seen him beaten, if not killed, in Tevinter. It was difficult - felt wrong - but he forced through his conditioning.

And Anders melted. His shoulders slumped, the frown in his brow eased, and he blinked. "What...?"

"Come with me," Fenris said, and the omega smiled.

"Yes..." Anders said.

He forced himself not to cringe at how easily Anders had fallen under his sway. An omega should at least know how to resist the smell of an alpha, but Anders seemed completely unprepared. Setting aside his disquiet for later, Fenris took the mage's hand and pulled him back the way they had come and away from the slavers. Hawke... Hawke would just have to do without them for now.

They got about 200 meters before Anders pulled back against him again. "What just happened?"

Fenris turned to face him and said bluntly. "You are an omega. You are going into heat, which makes you very susceptible, and you seem completely unaware of your condition and untrained in how to resist an alpha's domination. I'm sorry to have done that to you, but we have to get away. Do you have any idea what happens to omegas captured by slavers?"

"I..." Anders began. "But I'm not."

"Clearly, you are," Fenris said, meeting his eyes.

A kind of dawning horror crossed the mage's face. "But I've never had a heat. None of the signs. People manifest as teenagers and I never... no one in the Circle did. All the books. All my teachers..."

"I don't have answers for any of that, mage," Fenris said. "But there were plenty of mage omegas in Tevinter, and I can tell you that you smell... maddening right  now." Unable to resist, Fenris inhaled deeply and was almost overwhelmed.

Never mind the slavers - how was he going to keep the mage safe from _him?_

"I... right," Anders said. "I guess we should... I guess..."

"Yes," Fenris said, shortly, and began pulling the mage in the direction of the surface again.

Or what he had thought was the surface. In his distraction, he must have taken a wrong turning.

"This isn't the way we came," Anders said, his voice taking on a vague quality.

"I know," Fenris admitted. "I apologise. But we should keep moving."

"Maybe if we just... paused for a while, got our bearings," the mage said. But Fenris knew that if they paused they likely would not get going again for quite some time. He needed to find some place to put the mage where he could guard him from a safe distance. Maybe a dead end he could stand at the far end of...

Anders pulled on his hand in a way that unexpectedly unbalanced him. He really was not himself.

Fenris found himself careening into the mage, skin feeling uncomfortably close, despite the leather and metal and feathers between them.

"Hi," Anders murmured, looking down at him. He reached out a trembling hand and brushed back the hair from Fenris's face.

He shivered. His nostrils filled with a cocktail of sharp sweat and desire. He should step back.

Anders' hand came to rest on the side of his neck. Fenris's cock twitched.

"So this is what a heat is like," Anders breathed, his eyes flickering about Fenris's face in the torchlight.

With near-impossible effort, Fenris stepped back. "You know this is not something you would want sober."

Anders giggled. "I'm not _drunk_ , Fenris."

"You might as well be." He tried to step away, but Anders caught his arm again, where his armour left the skin bare. He grunted. Wanted to press into that touch. The glorious tingle that was the touch of an omega in heat who had chosen _him_. "You're not choosing me," he said as much to himself as to Anders. "You're choosing an alpha who happens to be close."

"Maybe," Anders whispered, closing the distance between them, "But I'm not seeing a problem with that just now."

His other hand rose and pulled Fenris's head to him. Soft lips closed on his. A hard cock pressed against his own through his leggings as Anders pressed him back against the rock wall.

And the intoxicating scent was all around him. Welcoming, enthralling, forbidden. Omega's were not to be used by the likes of him, except other lowly elf omegas bred to produce yet more slaves. But Anders was no slave. He was a free human mage, choosing him, courting him, running a hand under the flaps of armour over his arse and squeezing his flesh.

And a part of him knew that no one was choosing or courting anyone right now, but no one, no one had ever given themselves to him like this, and as Anders began to pull at the laces that confined his cock he began to mutter, "Yes... yes..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfamiliar hormones make Anders a bit emotional. Smut ensues.

Anders was overwhelmed. He pressed his nose against Fenris's neck and inhaled deeply. Rich. Earthy. Powerful.

His cock twitched. So powerful. This was a good mate. He needed more of him. Right now.

Hands frustrated with the leather barrier that barred them from touching skin to skin scrabbled at Fenris's lacings. And fingers were running through Anders' hair, sending delicious sensations across his scalp that made him moan.

Hot lips pressed against his, then broke to pant, deep rumblings of wanton need that only made him want this other man more. He pulled and pushed and finally freed Fenris's cock and arse from their confines. Hands kneading into the muscles of his buttocks to smash their cocks together.

And a strange, foreign sensation. An ache. A feeling of openness. Readiness. His arse waiting to be filled.

"Fuck me, please fuck me," he begged.

Another deep moan, but then he was being pushed away.

"No," Fenris panted. "No. I can't. I shouldn't. You don't know what you're saying."

"Please," he groaned, panicked by the rejection. "Please, I can be whatever you want. Just tell me what you want. I'll do it. I need you. I need you inside me. Please."

Fenris's face scrunched up, pained. "Mage, I'm not asking you to do anything."

Hot tears pricked his eyes. "Please." Did Fenris not understand how ready he was? Or... or was he so disgusted by the fact that he was a mage. And... and mages weren't supposed to be omegas. He knew that. There was something wrong with him. Of course Fenris didn't want him. He was defective. "Please," he begged again, tears spilling down his face.

"Oh mage." Arms closed about him. Held him close. But despite the strong smell of sex and power - _alpha_ \- all around him, this wasn't the sexual touch he so badly craved.

 _Rejection_. The alpha didn't want him. He was broken. He wasn't meant to be like this.

Great wracking sobs broke out of him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said. "Please, please, please. I know - I know I'm not what you want, but I - I can try to be. I..." The strength went out of his legs, and Fenris supported him as he sank to the ground.

"I'm not... I'm not rejecting you, mage," the elf's deep voice a rumble right next to his ear. The vibrations seemed to go right through him.

He needed this man inside him so badly.

"Then fuck me," he said. "Please." He was saying that word too much, but he couldn't seem to stop.

"I..." there was a tremble in his voice. "I don't think you truly want this. I don't think you even know what you're asking."

"I do," he said. He would show him. Show the alpha how much he wanted to be fucked. Show Fenris that he could be desirable.

He pulled at the buckles that held his coat to him, trembling with need, but making short work of them nonetheless.

"Anders..."

He pulled himself free of the feathers and heavy fabric, shucked himself out of his stained grey shirt.

"See," he said. "Not so bad underneath." Not as good as he had been when he trained regularly among the Wardens, but not bad. Still muscular.

He took Fenris's hand and pulled it to his side for he could feel. "See?"

"Anders, it is not, that I..." his eyes travelled down Anders's body. His hand felt across his muscles, and Anders tensed to make his abs more prominent. Slender fingers traced them. "You don't..." Fenris's voice was breathy, but he didn't finish the thought. Anders sat forward and kissed him, and after a moment, Fenris kissed back. Wet tongue against his, touch like electricity, stimulating his already hard cock.

When they broke, Fenris looked dazed, and Anders didn't hesitate to close his advantage. He made short work of his belt and wriggled his trousers and smalls down below his knees. Grabbed one of Fenris's hands, and shoved it between his open legs.

Shock, in Fenris's eyes, but he did not pull back. Fingers moved smoothly on the skin of his buttocks where he was wet with slick.

"Maker," he gasped. "I really am... I really am wet for you." He laughed, and pressed Fenris's hand further back. Felt the tip of a finger against his hot, wet arsehole.

He was, he really was an omega after all.

The finger curled inwards and he cried out, bucking against it.

Fenris hesitated a few seconds more, then pulled back and took Anders by the shoulders, shoving him to the floor of the cave.

Anders laughed breathlessly as Fenris bent down over him, sniffing deeply at where his scent gland must be, at the joining of his shoulder and neck and - _Oh Maker!_ \- he wanted to push the elf's head down and feel his teeth against that place, breaking the skin, biting him. Bonding with him. But-

"Mmmm, no," he said with regret, pulling Fenris's head back. "You can fuck me, but don't bite me. Not now. Not yet."

Fenris held his eyes. "I would not do that," he said, the intensity of need in his voice. "Not when you are like this. But I am glad to know you are well enough to refuse me, were I to try."

Then a pained look passed over his face. "I - if you tell me now," he said, with evident difficulty. "I will... I will move back from you.  Tell me. Is this what you want?"

Dimly, Anders understood what Fenris needed. Consent. Would he want this? Truly? If the heat were not upon him?

But the heat was upon him.

And he did want it.

He needed it. Ached deep down in his newly moist hole that begged to be filled.

"Yes," he said. "Please. Please don't make me wait anymore."

Fenris nodded and sat up, his red and throbbing cock standing out to attention. A slight swelling at its base showing what would, in fairly short order, become his knot.

Fenris gripped his thighs and pulled him closer, and Anders laughed again to be so manhandled, to feel the strength of his mate.

Strong hands squeezed down on his hips, making him moan, making him feel _possessed_ , then swept under his back, his arse. The dim light of the cave suddenly lit with white-blue light as Fenris's brands lit, and Anders felt the first stirrings of Justice's attention - silent, he realised, throughout all of this, pushed to the side by primal, animal needs the spirit could not understand or overcome.

Fenris lifted him like he was nothing. Held him up and over his cock, supporting him, then letting him sink down, the tip of something at his hole, making him moan, then pressing up inwards.

The delicious, incredible ache inside, if anything, intensified. As he felt the hot, hard length slide inside him.

"Maker," he panted. "Fenris..." He wrapped his legs around the man and pulled himself down, seating himself. Impaling himself.

Fenris was hard and aching inside him. He couldn't speak. And Fenris was staring at him with wide eyes, as though he could not believe what had happened to them either.

Anders smiled to see his expression. He knew he could show the elf he was worth it.

Smile breaking into a grin, he began to move. Rising slowly up, reveling in the smooth movement inside him - in how slick he had become. Then sliding back down. Angling himself so he grazed the sensitive space inside him. He groaned.

"Don't make me do all the work," he breathed in Fenris's ear. "I want you to pound me. I want you to take me."

"Yes," Fenris said, and when Anders met his eyes again the dazed look was gone.

Firm hands closed around his hips again, and he felt himself being tipped backwards, still impaled on Fenris's cock. He threw his arms around the elf's neck to steady himself as he was lowered to the floor. Fenris raised one of Anders' legs to get a better angle, then ploughed further in.

So deep.

So right.

"Yes," he said. "Good. More."

Fenris pulled back, so that only his tip was still inside Anders, then pounded home again.

"More."

Fenris grinned, pulled out, and slammed home again.

Anders groaned.

"Maker! Yes! _More_."

Fenris began to build a rhythm. Hard and powerful and slipping so smoothly inside him, lubricated by the slick his body was making.

 _You must remember to rehydrate_ , he thought, then giggled at the medical advice intruding at a time like this. _Omegas need a lot of liquids in their time of heat._

 _Yes,_ he thought, _and I am an omega now_.

Fenris pounded into him again, rubbing against that sweet spot inside. He groaned. And he could feel now that Fenris was starting to catch when he thrust in to his deepest, now. His knot was starting to form, and Anders desperately needed to make sure that it formed on the inside.

"Don't pull out too far," he said, breathlessly. "Don't pull out too far. I need you inside me. I need you to knot me."

"Are you sure?" Fenris asked, pausing for a moment while he was plunged all the way in. "You may feel differently... once you have climaxed. And we will be..."

"I know," he said, slapping Fenris's side. "I know what we will be. I'm a _healer_."

"A healer who did not know he was an omega."

Anders groaned. "Shut up and move. You stopped moving. Don't stop moving, just... just make sure you're inside me when you... when we..."

But Fenris was moving again and Anders could no longer talk.

Every time Fenris pulled back, he could feel the knot a little larger, the stretch at his rim a little painful, but also good.

And then finally a time came when he pressed in and they both groaned with the effort, and Anders grabbed his shoulders and held him fast. "Don't pull back, don't pull back," he whispered.

He felt the knot swell inside him. Huge, hot, hard. Locking them in place.

And Fenris was panting, making little, stuttering movements. Not pulling out, but still seeking friction. Rubbing up against that sensitive spot inside.

Then at last... "Ah!" Fenris came.

And Anders was so full, so aware of the alpha locked inside him, spilling seed into him. Filling him. Mating him. His cock twitched against the hard muscles of Fenris's abdomen, and he came, too. Hot spend splashing between the two of them.

Fenris collapsed over him, breathing hard. The twitching of his knot inside Anders showing that he was still coming inside.

His eyes were wide, and Anders stoked his hair. "I have you," he muttered, and kissed the elf's forehead. "It's OK, I have you."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tied together, Anders and Fenris talk. Fenris offers a theory about how Anders might not have known he was an omega.

They lay like that for some time. Anders acutely aware of the hard knot pulsing inside him, just past his entrance; Fenris lying on top of him, eyes wide.

Anders had read that knotting an omega in heat could be overwhelming for an alpha, but he had never thought to see it. Let alone with the alpha's knot firmly lodged inside _him_.

Fenris looked so vulnerable. Well, they both were pretty vulnerable, he supposed, coming back to an awareness of just where they were: lost in slaver caves.

Gingerly, he sat up, cradling Fenris against his chest. They groaned together as the movement ground Fenris's knot against his entrance.

"Stop moving!" Fenris gasped.

"Shhhh, shh," Anders hushed him. "This is a better position. It'll pull at you less. Trust me."

He shifted again so he could wrap his legs around Fenris's back, seating himself more fully into the elf's lap, then leaning him back against the wall.

Fenris groaned, his eyes closed.

Anders shifted a little, just enough to feel the pull of the knot against his entrance. It was... quite amazing. A dull ache. An insistent throb. A satisfying fullness.

Fenris slapped at him weakly. "Stop moving, mage!"

"It's OK," he said. "I was just... trying it out. I never expected to be on the receiving end of a knot."

"Mmm," Fenris grunted. "Because you thought you were a beta."

"Yes," Anders replied. "And the only alpha who ever... who ever fucked me before had no wish to be tied to me. Wouldn't waste it on a filthy mage."

Fenris opened his eyes, frowning. "They said this... while you were...?"

Anders shrugged. "Yes, well, templars aren't always that polite when they're taking what they want."

A sudden strong scent in the air. Possessiveness. Ownership. Fierce protectiveness. "They took you... they..."

Anders cursed himself. Fenris would be easily provoked in this state, awash with the urge to take care of the omega he was filling with his sperm. "Hey, no, look - that was years ago. I'm fine. I'm here with you. There's no one else." He stroked the elf's hair and watched as he slowly calmed.

"I... am sorry, mage. I had no idea."

Anders snorted. "Yes, well. If you ever listened to anything I said - opened your eyes to what's happening in this city, to the mages in the Gallows..."

Fenris groaned.

"Sorry," Anders said. "You're right. Best not to fight when we're tied together."

Fenris snorted. Then he raised a hand and gently caressed Anders' stomach. "I am in there."

Anders smirked, gave his hips a little jiggle, feeling the knot rubbing deliciously inside him. "Yes, you are."

"Mage!" Fenris protested.

Anders squeezed down about him, grinning as Fenris's eyes flew wide, his mouth open and inarticulate. Then he leant forward and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

"You're cruel," Fenris said, his voice breathy. "You have too much power like this."

"Right, as you sit there and fill me with your sperm, I'm the one with the power."

"Right now you are, yes." The elf sighed, and his hands resumed a lazy exploration of his torso - mostly the lower region.

Anders had to admit he was fascinated himself. Fenris felt so large and filling inside him, he half expected to see a lump in his stomach wall where the man's cock was poking through. But of course, there was nothing. Only the delicious ache inside, and the throb, at the base, just inside his arse, where Fenris's knot was swelled up to keep them together.

Anders shivered and realised he was cold. He started to lean behind him after his coat.

"No - stop! What are you doing?" Fenris protested.

"Getting my coat," Anders said. "I'm cold. _Some of us_ didn't get to stay basically fully clothed while we fucked."

"Stop moving," Fenris said, with the barest hint of _command._ Anders knew he should be annoyed by it, but just now he felt a powerful urge to _submit_ , and he realised he enjoyed the idea that Fenris was taking charge of him. _Maker_ , just how deep did this shit go?

Fenris leant forward, his arms closing about Anders, moving carefully to minimise the movements of his cock inside, but still making them both gasp as he tipped Anders back and pulled the coat over.

As Fenris pulled it up and about his shoulders, Anders felt somehow... safe. Protected. His alpha was taking care of him.

The heat of a blush flooded across his face and neck. "This is weird."

"Mmm," Fenris muttered, a hand resting protectively on his neck.

"You want to take care of me?" he asked.

"Yes," Fenris sighed. "Very much so."

"I want that, too," he admitted. "That's weird, right?"

Fenris chuckled. "Normally, I would say so. Right now, it feels... right."

Anders nodded. "Yeah."

"How long do you think it will last?"

"The knotting? Or the... protectiveness, thing?"

Fenris shrugged. "Either."

Anders thought back to his lessons, although how reliable those were was certainly being called into question. "Anything between five minutes and three hours, depending on a whole host of stuff."

Fenris's eyes opened wide again. "Three hours?"

Anders nodded. "It's not very likely, though. Very long or very short knottings are usually a sign that something's wrong. More normally... twenty minutes to an hour."

Fenris frowned with concern. "An hour is still a very long time to be vulnerable in a place like this."

"Yes, well, let's hope you got us well and truly lost," Anders said, then he smiled and squeezed down on Fenris again, delighting to watch the concern on his brow melt into pleasure. Maker, it felt so good to be filled by him.

"Have you done this before?" he asked, as Fenris seemed to be coming back to himself.

Fenris shook his head. "Not... knotting. I was... briefly put to stud, for slave omegas in heat. But forbidden to knot. They don't put you in at the same time as another alpha, but I think they put several alphas to the same omega, to ensure a litter. And of course, there was Hawke, but... that was different."

Anders felt sick. "They..."

"Perhaps it is another thing we should not speak of right now," Fenris said, his expression closed down in a way it hadn't been since they'd joined.

"OK," Anders said, stroking the side of his face, "OK."

They were silent for a while, and then Fenris grunted, his hips grinding up, his cock twitching inside Anders. He held tightly to Anders' hips for a moment, then collapsed back, panting.

"I think that's it," Fenris said, and Anders frowned. Experimentally, he tried to pull away, but the pressure on the inside of his arsehole showed that they were still securely tied. "Not that, fool. I am spent, but we will still be tied for a while. Or did they not teach you this, either?"

Heat flushed his cheeks again. "Sorry. They did. But... I haven't done this before. I never expected to do this. Didn't really think about what it would feel like..."

"How?" Fenris asked. "How could you not know?"

Anders shook his head. "I don't know. I never presented. _Nobody_ presented. _All_ the books said that magic interferes with the humours, preventing the alpha and omega characteristics from emerging."

Deep green eyes met his. "They lied to you, mage. I have known alpha mages. I have known omega mages."

Anders frowned. It was so difficult to comprehend. This other aspect of sex, it happened to other people. "Are you sure? Perhaps, in Tevinter, they hide..."

" _No_ , mage," Fenris said, with force. "I have felt an alpha mage's knot. They are not lying. _You_ have been lied to."

Another admission. Another secret best not pursued here, while they were tied together.

"But _how_? _Why?_ " A surprising swell of hurt and betrayal rose up in him. How had this been done to him? To them?

Fenris shrugged. "You have suppressants here, do you not?"

"Yes, but... only omegas take them - after they have presented, to prevent heats. That wouldn't-"

"It would," the certainty in Fenris's eyes was like a punch to the gut. "In Tevinter, if a slave child has undesirable traits and the owner does not want them to accidentally breed - breed at their own choosing - they lace the food with suppressants from childhood. The child never presents as an alpha or an omega. Betas can sometimes breed, of course, but it is rarer, and I think the suppressants interfere, anyway. I recall one magister trying to persuade Danarius to join his campaign for all elven slaves to be treated this way." Anders stared at him in horror. "Of course, he was unsuccessful. Magisters like having slaves too much to reduce our numbers so dramatically."

Anders' heart was beating hard in his chest. "But that... that means..." It meant that the Circle, the Templars, had been trying to extinguish them entirely. Hot tears stung his eyes. "I don't know why I'm surprised," he choked out. "They won't let us marry. They..." A broken laugh burst from his lips as he understood. "Of course. What do the rules mean to an omega in heat? They couldn't stop us. And it's so easy to forget your suppressants. So just... have everyone take it. All the time. And no one will question the lack of heats because they tell you you're all fucking betas anyway. They-"

Fenris pulled him forward into an embrace. "I'm so sorry mage."

Anders pushed him back. "Why? Isn't that what you want? An end to all mages?"

"No!"

Anders didn't believe him. It was too much. He needed to get away. Not thinking, he tried to stand up.

Fenris cried out in pain, and Anders gasped at the weight that pulled down on his arsehole.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Fenris was gasping wordlessly.

"Here," he directed a wash of healing magic down towards their combined genitals. "I forgot."

Fenris stared at him incredulously, still panting. "How could you forget?"

Anders realised he was trembling. "Because I'm a bit _distraught_ , OK? I-" he broke off. He couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't talk about anything right now. Desperately wanted to be alone.

And then a comforting smell washed over him. Rich and earthy. Warmth and protection.

Arms wrapped about him, and he relaxed into the embrace, the tears running down from his eyes.

"I will protect you." Fenris's warm and rolling voice so close to his ear. Long fingers stroking through his hair. "No one will ever hurt you again, I swear it."

It was a nice thought. Anders wiped his eyes and sighed, but didn't sit up. "I won't hold you to promises made when your cock is stuck up my arse," he said, and was rewarded with a low chuckle.

It was in such a position, still tied together, that Merrill found them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merrill and Hawke walk in on Anders and Fenris's shenannigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter because today has been exhausting.

Anders was starting to calm, leaning forward into Fenris's shoulder, the elf stroking long fingers through his hair.

He also couldn't help but be distracted by the hard length still inside him. He couldn't imagine what it must be like for Fenris to stay hard for so long. He resisted the temptation to tease the man by squeezing down again, though the ache inside plucked at him, and he wondered how long it would be after they separated before his heat started to build again.

He set the thought aside. It was good, soothing, to lie here against Fenris, steep himself in the comforting smell of an alpha who wanted to take care of him, and try to forget what he had discovered. That his body had deliberately been tampered with. That all Circle mages had been prevented from fully maturing. From breeding.

He felt the stirrings of Justice deep down inside him and breathed more deeply of Fenris's calming scent. He wasn't ready to go to battle on that, and Fenris would not welcome Justice's anger.

Footsteps disturbed his thoughts. He looked up, just in time to see Merrill rounding the corner.

"Oh!" she gasped, dashing forward. "There you are!" She looked back over her shoulder. "I found them, Hawke!" she called. "It's just Anders and Fenris!" she said, coming towards them now. "We were so worried when you didn't show up. Are you hurt? Is something wrong with Fenris, Anders?"

Anders felt the heat rising in his cheeks again, feeling around him to find his stained grey tunic and shove it down into his lap in a vain attempt at decency.

"We thought there must have been some captives down here," Merrill continued, "Hawke was really worried about the smell and - goodness, Anders, you're a little bit naked, aren't you?" she said, staring at his bare legs and chest. "What...? Did-" Understanding dawned in her eyes. " _Oh_. Oh my."

Anders couldn't take her eyes roaming over the two of them again and buried his head in Fenris's shoulder, groaning.

"But you're not..." she said. "You're not an omega, are you, Anders? I thought you were a beta."

"So did I," he said, not looking up. "But apparently not."

More footsteps. Hawke. Great.

A low whistle. "Well, if I'd known you two were back here doing the floor tango I wouldn't have minded so much that you left us alone in the fight."

"Hawke," Fenris said, his voice low and full of warning.

"We thought some omega was down here in heat, so I sent Merrill on ahead, you know," she went on, oblivious as ever. "But as it's just you two, over-zealously stinking up the place-"

" _Hawke_ ," Fenris said again.

"Hawke," Merrill said, more gently. "There is an omega in heat."

"What?" She sounded genuinely surprised. _How bloody clueless could you..._

Anders sighed and raised a hand, sitting up. "Hi. It's me. I'm the omega that's in heat."

"No, but-" She was frowning. "But I thought you..."

"Me too," Anders said, wondering just how pink he was at this point.

"No, but you..."

"Yes."

Her eyes widened as she took in the scene properly. "But you're not still..."

" _Perhaps_ , Hawke," Fenris said, the slight tremor in his body betraying to Anders the tension he was containing. "You might return further down the tunnel and give us some privacy."

"Right," Hawke said, holding up her hands. "Good idea. Absolutely _not_ trying to intrude on anything. No - no alpha challenges going on here. You - you finish up... that thing you're doing." She took Merrill by the hand and beat a hasty retreat.

A cloud of pure aggression enveloped them, nearly choking Anders on the scent.

He coughed. "Andraste's lacy knickers, Fenris, she's _gone_."

"I know," he said, glaring after her. "I was trying to keep it in." Then he rubbed his face with his hands and sighed deeply.

"Here," Anders said, "Let me take your mind off it." He shifted in Fenris's lap and squeezed down on the hard length inside him.

Fenris's eyes flew wide and he gasped. "Mmmm," he said. "No, don't. Anders. Stop. We'll never unlock if you keep this up."

Anders deflated a little. "That's not how it works, is it? Is it?" He'd read that so-called 'locked play' shouldn't affect the length of a knotting, but his confidence in everything he knew about alphas and omegas was a little shaken.

"I don't know," Fenris said. "But just... sit still, can you?"

"Sorry," Anders said.

Fenris caught one of his hands and stroked the back. "It's OK. I just need... a moment."

He tried to sit still, relaxing as much as possible around Fenris's knot.

Slowly, the soothing smells Fenris had been producing before took over the acrid scent of aggression Hawke had provoked. After a few minutes, Fenris pulled him back into his arms, and they both relaxed.

Anders couldn't have said how long it was after that, but finally, the hard lump inside him began to soften. He sat up and saw relief on Fenris's face. He waited a little bit longer, and then gingerly levered himself up.

Anders could feel the fluids leaking out of him as he did so, but not quite in the rush he'd feared. His hole closed as Fenris's softening cock slipped free, but he still felt somehow... empty.

_What if I'm pregnant?_

The thought surprised him. He'd given up such childhood dreams a long time ago, but now, maybe...

But no. Omega or not, he was still a Grey Warden, and even without years of suppressants disrupting his body's natural cycle, the taint made fertility amongst Wardens extremely low.

Anders used his underpants to wipe up what he could of the mess between his legs, then stuffed them into his pack, pulling on his trousers without anything underneath. It didn't take much after that for him to get fully clothed.

A little sheepishly, they rejoined Hawke and Merrill.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawke is nosy, and Anders is pissed off with pretty much everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one again. I have almost no time to write, but this story is wriggling out of me in bits and pieces anyway.

"Sooooo," Hawke said as they rejoined her and Merrill, her eyes roving over Anders.

"Don't," Anders said, hoping against hope that he could avoid any further painful conversations.

For a while, it seemed like Hawke would manage to stay quiet as they made their way through dark slaver tunnels.

Anders noticed she was limping. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry we weren't where we were supposed to be," he said. "Do you want me to heal that?"

"'Tis but a scratch," she said, with mock drama. "I did go through a lot of healing potions, though."

He sighed and stopped beside her. "Come on, then," he said.

She grinned an impish smile as he crouched down. "Oh my - hot, sexy omega hands all over my delicate legs-"

Hawke grunted as she was shoved back against the cave wall. Fenris had her pinned, his arm pressing on her wind pipe.

"Oh for the love of-" Anders stood, suddenly mad at both of them. "Get off her."

He pulled on Fenris's shoulders, and although he could not equal the elf's strength, his displeasure was apparently enough to get through to him and he reluctantly let her go.

Having that effect on Fenris was strange enough to make him feel disgusted all over again.

"Stop it, both of you," he said. "I'm not - I'm not going to _deal_ with this right now." He sent a brief blast of healing magic at Hawke's leg, then turned and walked away. "If there's anything else you need you can suck it up until we get to Kirkwall."

"Sorry, Anders," Hawke said from behind. "It's just... how could you not know you were an omega?"

She never could seem to keep her mouth shut. Did he have to go through this again? Just how many conversations like this was he going to have to have? Reluctantly, he began, "Hawke, I don't... I can't..."

"He doesn't have to talk about this right now," Fenris interjected, and Anders turned round and glared.

"And I don't need you to _talk_ _for me_ ," he spat. "You don't own me. You haven't claimed me. I don't need you to fight battles you wanted nothing to do with a few hours ago. So _stop it_ , Fenris," he said, pushing the elf back against the wall. "Cut it out."

He caught the look of hurt in Fenris's eyes before he turned away again. All posture deflated out of him. But, he told himself, he hadn't asked for Fenris's protection. They weren't lovers just because they had fucked. Suddenly the idea of fucking seemed appalling, and the fact that he would very likely want to do it again within the hour... anathema.

How could his body work like this? How could his body betray him like this? He'd been fine with being a beta. It was so much less complicated. It wasn't like he'd wanted a family or kids - not for a long time. His work with Justice was so much more important. And now...

He didn't want this. Yet he was somehow furious that he'd been denied it. That mages were being systematically robbed of their sexual characteristics to prevent them breeding. And he... his body...

As the feeling of violation rose over him again, Justice rose with it, and it was a struggle to push the spirit down. Part of him didn't want to. Part of him wanted to lash out at whoever was nearest and...

"Hey," Merrill's voice just a little behind made him start. "You've got very long legs, Anders," she said. "Would you mind terribly slowing down just a little? I know you're annoyed with Hawke and Fenris, but you really shouldn't be walking off on your own. Not down here."

He slowed a little. "Because I'm an omega, you mean."

"Maybe a bit," she admitted. "But also because I don't think it's a great place for anyone to be walking alone. I mean, have you _seen_ how big the spiders are?"

He laughed in spite of himself. Grudgingly admitted that walking off alone in his present state possibly wasn't the best idea.

Was that easier to admit because she was a beta? Is that how things were going to be now? Every interaction suddenly about what was between his legs and how much the other person cared?

"I don't think we're that far from the surface though," Merrill went on. Filling the air in the way he used to before Justice. Speaking just to fill the silence with noise. "It'll be nice to be out in the open again. Give everyone a chance to breathe some fresh air."

He sighed deeply and nodded. He slowed enough to let her come alongside, but still kept up a good pace. He didn't want to talk to Hawke or Fenris right now. Best to keep moving.

Anders glanced at her. She was a mage, too. For a moment, his stomach lurched with the realisation that this must affect her. She was a mage, so maybe she wasn't the beta she'd thought either-

-but no. She was Dalish. She'd never been inside a Circle. Never been secretly fed suppressants.

But on the back of that, another realisation:

"You _knew_ ," he said, stopping. "You've known all this time!"

"I," she frowned. "Have I? What have I known? I didn't think you were an omega..."

"No," he said. "But you knew that I might be. You knew that I could be."

"Well," she said. "I don't know that I gave it much thought."

"You knew not all mages were betas. You've never said a word, and you could have just _said_."

It was like the truth had been hovering right beside him, and a chance gust of wind could have revealed it. If he'd only asked the right question. If she'd happened to let slip...

"You what?" she said, obviously confused. "Why would you think that? Of course we're not all betas. Keeper Marethari's an alpha. Most keepers are. It's one of the ways I was unusual in being her first."

He stared at her. At any time she could have said. Could have let slip. Or he might have noticed, while they were in the Dalish camp. If he'd just known to pay attention. But he'd never really been that interested in detecting who was an alpha and who was an omega. It didn't matter so much when heats were taken out of the equation.

Except that now he was someone who had heats. He was having one right now. Any second it could start building again and he'd be a slave to desires he couldn't control.

Despair welled up in him. He didn't want to be that. He didn't want to have sex right now. He wanted to find some small dark corner and curl up alone.

But now Fenris and Hawke had caught up with them.

"Wait, no, I remember now," Hawke was saying. "That's what dad said, when Bethany was upset because she hadn't presented. That mages don't. That it was normal to be a beta."

Merrill was frowning. "What? Is this a human thing? A human mage thing?"

"No," Anders said. "It's a Circle mage thing." He shuddered. "I'm sorry." He hated the tremor in his voice. "I can't talk about this," he said. And he fled away from them again, at a pace just short of a run.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris and Anders talk about what he needs to do when his heat rises again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly rushed posting this as my mates i was meeting arrived early. Apologies for any errors. Will proofread later!
> 
> Update: I'm now home and the worst of the typos should be fixed.

"How far is it to Kirkwall?" Fenris asked Hawke as they followed after Anders, trying to give him the space he so obviously needed without losing sight of him entirely.

"About a four hour walk, I'd say," Hawke said, more subdued than before.

"He... will need to rest before then," Fenris said.

She nodded. "Whether he wants to or not." Hawke sighed. "You should talk to him. He's going to need you."

Fenris wanted to believe that. Felt a little ashamed at the selfishness of it, because it wasn't about Anders, a man he had never particularly gotten along with, it was about the long unsatisfied need to take care of someone. It was about the omegas he had been bred to and not allowed to stay with, not allowed to protect. "I don't think he wants to talk to me right now."

Hawke shrugged. "So give it a little while. Maybe wait until we're out of the caves, I don't think they're helping - he hates caves. But we need to make camp before he really gets going. _He_ needs to be thinking about it. And he needs to still be able to make decisions when he does."

***

Anders let them close the distance a bit when he got to the surface, but as soon as they had a clear view of the entrance, he was off again.

Hawke gave Fenris a significant look.

She was right, he should talk to Anders sooner rather than later, but it wasn't a conversation he relished having.

He quickened his pace, nearly moving at a jog to try to close the distance, but not wanting to spook Anders by running after him.

"I'm not ready to talk," Anders said once he was close enough to hear. He didn't even look over his shoulder.

"I know," Fenris said. "I'm sorry. But I think we need to." Panting, he put on a spurt of speed and closed the distance.

Anders glared at him and moved away - not ahead, but keeping distance between them. "There isn't any 'we' Fenris. I know what happened back there... happened. But it's not like you've been courting me. It's not like there's _anything_ between us except that stupid... bodily things got in the way."

Fenris squashed down the hurt that rose at his words. Anders wasn't saying anything that wasn't true. It wasn't malicious. It's just that his every instinct said that he now needed to protect and look after the omega he had mated with. "It isn't about... you and me," he said reluctantly. "We will not make it to Kirkwall before..."

"I _know_ ," Anders said, curtly.

"We need to make camp."

"Not yet." Anders' pace quickened again where it had begun to slow.

"Soon though."

Anders made a noise somewhere between a groan and a snarl.

"I'm not saying you have to let me into your tent," Fenris said, quietly.

Anders laughed, and Fenris hunched his shoulders against it. "Oh good. Everything will be fine then."

"But it will be easier for you if you have someone with you, to look after you."

Anders shot him a dark look. "I see."

"We don't have to have sex. I wouldn't do anything you didn't want."

Anders turned abruptly, nearly making Fenris trip at the sudden stop. He pulled up close, and Fenris could feel every inch of Anders' height, the breadth of his shoulders, and he knew that Anders wanted him to be aware. "And you know," he said, his eyes flitting back and forth between Fenris's, "that when the time comes I'll be begging for you to do anything you want to me. So cut the crap about being chivalrous and taking care of me."

Fenris met his eyes, but held himself back from responding to the posturing. Now was not the time to impress Anders with his stature as an alpha. "I would not do anything that you did not agree to right now, while you are still yourself."

Anders held his eyes for a second more, then looked off to the horizon, where the sun was setting. He swallowed, and Fenris watched his throat bob.

"I just... I just don't want to have sex right now," he said at last. "And I know I'm going to need it, badly. Maybe two hours from now. Maybe any moment." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I don't want this. I need to think, and..."

"There are things I could do," Fenris said, hesitantly, "To ease your tension. Without knotting you. Without penetrating you. Let me take care of you," he breathed, his own needs betrayed. "That's all I want."

"You mean like..." he swallowed again. "Hand jobs. Licking me out. That sort of thing."

Fenris blushed. He hadn't expected Anders to be that blunt, but he supposed he should have. "If that's what you want. I could also just... hold you. Try to keep you calm. Make sure you have food and water. I... I feel like I have been neglecting you," he said, holding out his own water flask so that Anders might drink from it.

Anders snorted, but he took the flask anyway, and drank.

"Would you like me to do that for you? Any of that. As little or as much as you want."

Anders closed his eyes, thinking. "Alright," he said. "Help me... manage it. All of those... things. But not... knotting. Not... penetrating. The other stuff.

It was more than Fenris had expected. "Are you sure?"

Anders nodded, then turned and walked away. "But let's see if we can walk another hour first. I want to get to Kirkwall after... after the next time."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make camp, and Fenris prepares a den for Anders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm ill off work, so you guys get even more of this little story :) But my energy gave out when it got to the sexy bit, so no smut this time, only Anders and Fenris feeling out how it's going to work. Next chapter will have smut, though. Fenris is going to look after our boy good and proper.

Anders was aware of it, this time, when his heat started to build.

There was a literal kind of warmth to it. In the twilight after the sunset, the temperature must have been dropping, but he felt warm. Opened the buckles of his coat to feel the breeze against his skin.

It wasn't long after that that Fenris cleared his throat.

"Anders..."

"I know," he said, shortly.

"Anders, your scent..."

"Yes. But I can still walk. I want to get a bit further."

A hand on his shoulder. He struggled against the impulse to melt into that touch. He could smell Fenris now too - the scent of a powerful alpha - though he doubted the man was consciously trying to put anything out.

 _Heightened senses. When an omega goes into their heat, the changing humours provoke a kind of susceptible alertness._..

Anders shoved away the memory of lessons that had failed to convey the most salient of facts - that they might one day apply to him.

When Fenris pulled on his shoulder he allowed himself to be turned.

"We have to set camp," he said, his voice low and calm. "It will take time."

"I'm not ready yet," he admitted. But he knew what he was unready for were the changes happening in his own body; the on-coming heat that was already building beneath his skin.

Fenris nodded. "I understand," he said. "But I can make it easier for you. Let me make sure everything is ready for you when you need it."

Closing his eyes, Anders nodded. He allowed Fenris to help him off with his pack; let him take his things away and begin setting up his tent.

He looked away from Hawke and Merrill as they caught up with them. Didn't want to look them in the eyes and see recognition there - that they knew what was happening to him. What Fenris was doing.

***

Fenris set up the tent with quick efficiency. It would be small, for two people, but he was determined to make it as homely as possible. He took the bed rolls from both their packs and attempted to make something resembling a comfortable den.

It was not enough. The results were... pathetic, really. Anders would have no comfort from this. He looked through both their packs for more. Soft clothing that could be rolled into make-shift pillows. They each had a spare tunic, but it wasn't really enough.

His hands hesitated when he found Anders' discarded smalls. His nose twitched at the scent of sex and heat and _Anders_ that wafted up when he disturbed them.

"What are you looking for?"

Hawke's voice made him jump. Recovering himself he closed the bag and turned to her. "Anything to make the tent more comfortable. This... this is not good enough." He could not hide the sadness in his tone. "He will feel the ground straight through it."

Hawke peered at the paltry den Fenris had made and nodded. "Hang on a tick," she said, and went over to her own back, pulling out things: blankets, a cloak, a small pillow cased with velvet. She shrugged when she noticed him looking at it. "Isabela gave it to me. Don't ask."

She scooped the lot up and brought it over to him.

"What will you sleep on?"

"Someone has to keep guard," she said. "We'll only be stopping a few hours anyway, right?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, surprising a laugh out of him.

"Here," Merrill had approached from behind, and now offered up her own bedroll. "I'll keep Hawke company."

Fenris flushed. "You... were both in a fight earlier."

"We'll manage," Merrill said, brightly. "I always find it's better to stay up than try to manage on just a few hours sleep anyway."

He looked guiltily at the collection of things now at his feet. "They will... likely smell afterwards."

Hawke grimaced. "Yes, alright, but that's what soap is for, isn't it? Now shut up and go make a more respectable bed."

"Thank you," Fenris said, humbled by their generosity. For his own sake, he would have refused. But for Anders... no, he was determined to take care of his omega. They might not be bonded, but they had started this heat together, and he was determined to see it through.

When he was done setting out the extra blankets and pillows this time, the tent looked a little crowded, but definitely more cosy. A much more acceptable proposition to present to one's mate.

***

By the time Fenris approached him, Anders had stripped out of his coat, down to his trousers and shirt.

He could smell the alpha approaching, but didn't turn round.

"How do you feel?" Fenris asked, crouching down close, but not too close. Trying to give him space.

"Confused," Anders admitted. Part of him wanted to pull Fenris towards him, run hands all over his body, strip him bare, inhale deeply of the scent of _alpha_. The other part of him wanted nothing more than to be alone. Alone but for Justice, and the rage and pain that simmered inside him.

Fenris nodded, not looking at him directly. "I have... made the tent as comfortable as possible. We will have food and water in with us. Hawke has lent me her water flask as well, so we should have a good supply." He offered up his own to Anders now. "You haven't been drinking enough."

Anders sighed, and took it. He could feel the damp moistness between his buttocks, speaking to the increased levels of lubricating mucous he was producing. There was probably a damp patch on his trousers by now. The elf was right, he needed to drink. "You can smell it, I suppose."

"I..."

He wondered if the elf was blushing. Hard to tell this far from the fire.

"Anders, I merely want-"

"I know," he said, quietly. "Thank you." He drank deeply and handed the flask back. "Alright, I suppose I can't avoid this any longer." Anders stood and allowed himself to be led to the tent Fenris had prepared.

It looked... surprisingly comfortable, if a little crowded.

"We... didn't have this many blankets," he said.

"Hawke and Merrill have lent us some."

Anders felt the flush in his cheeks. Of course. Everyone was chipping in for his humiliation.

"You don't like it," Fenris said, and Anders felt a stab of guilt.

He'd forgotten how the drive to take care of him would be taking over Fenris. Preparing a comfortable den for one's omega was a significant part of traditional mating rituals.

"No, I do!" he assured him. "I'm just... embarrassed. It feels like... everyone's involved in what's happening to me."

Fenris's face was hard to read at the best of times. Impossible in the dim light, but Anders could hear the disappointment in his voice. The sense of failure. "I... am sorry. I should have refused, but... it wasn't enough - what we had. You would... you would not have been comfortable."

Anders took his hand and squeezed it. "It will be fine. Really. It really does look very nice."

Letting go, he made his way into the tent, Fenris following after.

In the close confines, the scent of alpha was heady. He could feel Fenris's presence almost better than he could see him. Remembered the feeling of hands on his flesh; a hot, hard cock inside him.  Anders felt a throb, deep down within, and both his anus and his cock twitched. "What do we do now?" he asked, his mouth dry.

"Only what you want, mage," Fenris said.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris takes care of Anders.

_Only what I want._ What did he want?

To lie down to and go to sleep alone.

To have Fenris's hard cock stuffed deep inside him.

To punch someone, preferably a Templar.

The smell of Fenris was everywhere in the tent, but he could hardly see him.

"Undress," he heard himself say. "You saw everything of me before and I saw hardly anything of you."

Fenris nodded. "Of course." And Fenris began to undress. Pulling at straps and buckles, slowly divesting himself of his hard, angular armour.

Anders throbbed: his arse, his cock - everything down there seemed full of heat and want. Having Fenris obey his command without fuss was definitely a turn on.

As he shrugged out of his tunic, Anders could see the dim shape of his muscles, and his breath hitched.

He half expected Fenris to hesitate as he pulled down his trousers, but the elf went smoothly on until he was completely naked.

"I can barely see you," he whispered.

"Would this help," Fenris's low voice in the darkness, followed by blinding light as his brands lit.

It had absolutely been what Anders had hoped would happen, but the brightness after the dark was hard to look at and he laughed as he went to cover his eyes.

"Sorry," Fenris said quickly, the brands immediately extinguished. "Mage, I apologise, I wasn't thinking."

Anders continued laughing. "Fenris, no, don't apologise. Please, that is what I wanted. I just need a few moments to get used to it."

The brands flickered to life again, and Anders blinked as his eyes adjusted.

When he could see again, the view was strange and beautiful. With the light coming _from_ Fenris, he didn't look as he would in daylight. Bright blue-white lines stood out starkly against dark skin, but also reflected off the planes and curves of his muscles.

And his cock. Tiny, elegant swirls of light emanated from his cock. Lit up his balls and the insides of his thighs.

"Fuck," Anders, said. "You're beautiful." He reached over and ran a hand over the rounded muscle of Fenris's shoulder. Down across the firm plane of his chest. Thumb traced the swirl of lyrium around his nipple. Then down along his side - relishing every bump and dip that spoke of the hard muscles of a warrior.

His hand came to rest on Fenris's hip, aware that his own cock was getting quite hard now. "Do they hurt? The markings?"

Fenris hesitated a moment. "They are raw lyrium carved into my skin, mage. Yes, they hurt."

"All the time?" Anders asked.

"Yes."

"And now?" he asked, knowing he was prying, but unable to stop himself. "Do they hurt more when you do this?"

Another hesitation. Then: "Yes, but it is worth it. I want you to see me."

"Mmm," Anders couldn't hold back the noise at the eroticism of that. But... "I can make it easier for you, if you let me."

A pause. "With magic, you mean."

"Yes," he said, unable to stop his hand from exploring lower, rubbing down Fenris's well-toned thigh. "Just a low level healing aura. I think it would help."

Fenris nodded very slightly. "Alright. If you think it would help."

Anders closed his eyes and drew on his mana, careful to focus on his own pool, and not draw on the power of the lyrium so tantalisingly close.

He heard Fenris gasp and opened his eyes. "Did it help?"

"Yes," Fenris said, his voice rough. "I didn't realise. So much magic is... painful to me. I..."

His alpha approved. Relief. Joy. A surge in the urge to mate with him. Anders pulled Fenris close and kissed him. Hands ranging over his body now. In his hair. Down his back. Kneading the firm muscles of his arse. Lips so soft against his, a contrast to the hard muscles of Fenris's body.

And deeper and closer, filling his senses, that smell: _alpha, alpha, alpha_.

He broke away, panting. "Fuck me," his whispered. "I want you to fuck me. I need you inside me."

Fenris's strong, warm hand cupped his chin. "No, mage," he said. "That is not what we agreed."

Anders made a pained noise deep down in his throat. His cock was fully hard now, and he began struggling to remove his trousers. "Please, I need it. I know I didn't want it before, but that was then and this is now and I need you. Please."

It was true. And he hated himself for not undressing when Fenris had so they could be touching skin to skin right fucking now.

Hands took his and kissed them. A calming note overlaid the raw sexual power of Fenris's scent. "I will help you," he said, his tone low and even. "I won't fuck you, but I will help you."

Anders groaned, but allowed Fenris to take over the task of undoing his trousers and sliding them down. He let him removed his shirt, revelling if the sense of how close their bodies were - feeling the heat off of Fenris's skin even when they weren't touching.

"Lie on your side," Fenris said. Not a command, but he was only too happy to obey.

Bliss was Fenris lying down behind him and fitting their naked bodies together. Fenris's hard cock against his backside was a reassurance. His alpha did want him. This holding back was torture, but it wasn't rejection. He ground his hips back against that hard presence, and was gratified to hear Fenris moan in response.

Then a hand wrapped around Anders cock, and he gasped.

Soft lips on his neck, a little breathless now. "I will take care of you; I promise."

The hand on his cock rubbed firmly up and down, ghosted over the sensitive head, and then was gone.

"No..." he moaned.

Another kiss on his neck. "A moment." He head Fenris reach for something, then a few moments later the hand was back - oiled this time. Anders arched against Fenris's body in appreciation as fingers moved smoothly up and down his cock, smoothed down over his balls and underneath along his taint, then back up to pump against him. Anders could feel the strong, beautiful muscles of Fenris's arms in that firm grip.

And then a tongue on his neck, licking a broad stripe up to his ear in time with the firm hand on his cock. Anders groaned, and then gasped as teeth delicately nibbled on his ear.

His arsehole was throbbing again, and he could feel how wet he was. He pressed back against Fenris, enjoying the moan the elf made as Anders' fluids were rubbed over his cock.

Fenris bit down on his shoulder - far enough away from his scent gland to clearly not be a mating mark, but still... stimulating.

The hand left his cock and he felt Fenris's breath hot against his ear. "Roll on your stomach and spread your legs, mage. I wish to taste you."

Anders made a whimpering noise and rushed to obey, his cock now trapped deliciously between his body and the blankets of the den, his head resting on a surprisingly soft pillow. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," he whispered, knowing that Fenris would not, both loving and hating that, and impatient for his touch again.

Hands pressed into the flesh of his buttocks and separated them. Then the touch of Fenris's nose against his cheeks. He could hear the man inhaling deeply, then he plunged in. Fenris's face pressed against his skin, a warm, wet tongue teasing at his hole.

Anders groaned, and Fenris did too, the vibration felt through his arse, seeming to go straight to his cock.

Then he was being hauled up to his knees and repositioned. Face pressed again between his cheeks, but now also a hand on his cock, and one on his hips to steady them.

Fenris's tongue licked and flicked against his entrance as he began pumping Anders' cock - so hard now, so aching and full and ready. And his hole twitching open of its own accord, begging to be filled, quivering with each warm wet touch.

And the thought of all those streaming juices covering Fenris's face, getting in his hair - Anders pushed back against that pressing face and moaned.

It wasn't as good as a long, hard cock inside him - as a knot slowly expanding to fill him - but _was_ good. Anders felt _cared for_ , _protected_ , and horny as fuck.

Fenris began licking with the broad width of his tongue, up along the taint and along around the edge of his hole, and each one was making him feel tighter and tighter - closer and closer to completion - and then he stopped, licking deeply into Anders hole at the same time and pulling smoothly along his dick, and Anders came, hard, his come spurting across the blankets below.

Panting, Fenris, drew him up, their bodies pressed together, holding him. The elf's still-hard cock pressed against his slick cheeks once more.

Exhausted by his orgasm, all Anders could do for now was twitch in his arms.

"I have you, mage," Fenris whispered. "I have you." And then he lowered them down to the blankets, away from the wet patch, and held him.

"You're still hard," Anders said at last, turning in his grasp to face the elf. "Let me help you." He reached a hand between them, but Fenris drew it back, shaking his head.

"I told you," he said. "Only what we discussed before, when you were yourself. We did not discuss that."

"Fenris," he protested, but the elf shook his head.

"I will be fine. I want to take care of you," he said. "I just want to take care of you. Let me do that."

Anders sighed and allowed himself to be pulled against the firm muscles of Fenris's chest. "If you're sure," he said, and was surprised by a chuckle and a kiss on his forehead.

"Yes, mage, I am sure." A hand stroked his hair. "Rest now. I will get food and water for you shortly."

Safe and sated in his alpha's arms, Anders was finally able to relax.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders needs a bit more attention. Fenris is happy to oblige.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another little short one, but very smutty.

There was still a delicious ache between Anders' legs. He squirmed and clenched down on himself. He longed to have something inside the emptiness of his passage, but the intense, all-consuming need had passed.

Fenris reached to the back of the tent and pulled over a water flask and a chunk of cheese.

"Are - are we stopping now?" Anders asked.

Fenris set down the cheese and stroked Anders' arm. The lights of his brands, which had flickered out as they lay together after Anders' orgasm, lit up the tent once more.

"You are not... do you wish to continue?" Fenris asked, the attentive, concerned look so foreign on his face.

"I don't know," Anders said. "It - what you did for me - it was wonderful. Thank you. But... there's still this need. I think I remember... there's like a trigger, when an alpha comes inside an omega, it makes the cool down happen much quicker. Part of cementing the mating so you don't go off and fuck someone else I guess. You getting me off helps, but I'm still..." he squirmed again. "There's this aching inside..."

Fenris nodded, considering. "Well. I still want you to eat something first," he said, pulling himself up on his elbow and slicing off a hunk of cheese. "And you will drink." He pushed the flask towards Anders, who laughed.

"Yes, ser!" He drank deeply, the water tasting cool and crisp and very welcome, he realised. Between the slick and the sweat of sex he would have expelled a lot of liquid.

Gasping after he'd drunk his fill, he took the cheese from Fenris and began to eat.

"I still don't think you are yourself," Fenris said, looking at him with fondness. "So I will not fuck you or... come inside you."

Anders resisted the urge to whine in disappointment. Fenris was right, he wasn't himself yet, but he was more himself. More in control of the noises he made, resisting the urge to beg to be fucked.

"But I believe we discussed hand jobs," the elf said, the corner of his mouth twitching up with the barest hint of a smirk. "There is more than one kind of hand job."

A pleasurable shiver of anticipation went through Anders. "Oh?"

Fenris nodded, took a sip of water for himself, then pushed the flash back at Anders. "Drink first."

He did. The rest of the flask, and another hunk of cheese, as well as a slice of bread. Then finally, Fenris set the food and drink aside and shifted closer to him.

"So...?"

"Shhh," Fenris hushed him, and Anders felt another pleasurable shiver that his alpha was taking control.

Fenris reached down, cupping his balls and gently squeezing them.

"Mmm." His cock began to harden again.

Fenris bent forward and kissed him. Gentle at first, then, as fingers traced patterns on his sensitive flesh that made him gasp, Fenris's tongue slipped through and met his.

The investigative hand on his balls drifted backwards, between his legs, nudging them apart. Trailing a path between his balls and his hole. His cock was definitely hard now, and his sphincter clenched in anticipation, the area around it thoroughly moist, Fenris's fingers slipping smoothly on it.

One digit pressed in, and he squeezed around it.

"Good?" Fenris asked.

"Yes, please, more," he said, unclenching to allow Fenris to press further, or more fingers in, if he wished.

Fenris shifted closer, and the finger whose tip was inside him pressed deeper.

"Mmmm," he moaned.

"More?"

"Yes, please."

The finger pressed in further. Anders felt the second knuckle slip through, and then it pressed within him, angling to find that sweet space...

He gasped.

"There?"

"Yes, yes..."

The finger began to rub. Oh, delicious, that one hot spot seeming to centre his entire being.

His eyes were closed, but his hand found Fenris's head and pulled him in for another kiss.

His cock was fully hard and weeping pre-come now. _Maker_ , Fenris had got him worked up so quickly!

Then the finger withdrew and he broke the kiss with a moan of despair.

But only for a moment. Then two fingers were slipping in to hims well-moistened hole. Finding that place inside. Rubbing.

He gasped and moaned and his fingers clenched in Fenris's hair.

"Yes, yes, fill me," he said, breathless.

Fenris pulled him bodily closer, levering off the hand pressed inside him, and he groaned as those blessed fingers pressed deeper, then back out - almost to the entrance - then back in again, stroking over the hot, sensitive place inside.

Anders was lost to the sensation now. Letting Fenris play him as he wished. Fingers moving faster. Pressing harder. And it felt oh so good. Pleasure concentrating down into that one place and his hard, weeping cock until finally the pressure was too much - just right - and he came, his spend splashing out onto Fenris's beautifully muscled stomach.

He shuddered and twitched and gasped.

"Better, mage?" Fenris asked.

Anders couldn't speak, but he nodded.

"Yes, thank you, yes."

Fenris sat up to fetch something from the front of the tent, then settled beside him, drawing Anders into his arms. He kissed his ear through his hair.

"Take all the time you need. I have you, my sweet omega."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders calls Fenris out on his hypocrisy and talks about what he wants the next time his heat rises.

Anders drank deeply of the cool water in the flask Fenris passed him, still twitching, his arse clenching down on a cock that wasn't there. Mostly sated, but not with the deep, calming satisfaction that he now knew could come from having the knotted cock of an alpha lodged inside him.

 _Maker_ , of all the things he might have imagined thinking about when he'd woken up that morning...

Fenris brushed the hair back from his face, and he looked up into dark, attentive eyes.

"Thank you," he said. All of this - the sex, taking care of him - might be prompted by instincts neither of them could do anything about, and which would melt away in a couple of days when his heat had passed, but he couldn't deny that Fenris had been more than decent. Considerate. Certainly more gentle than any of their previous interactions had given him any reason to expect.

Anders' head was clearing, now, the heat cooling off to something approaching normality, even as his body recovered from its most recent orgasm.

"You kept your word," he said.

Fenris lay down on the blankets beside him, looking up at a ceiling made pale blue by the light of his brands. "It is... important to me," he said, his deep voice soft, "that you be taken care of - as you deserve."

"Even though I'm a mage?" The words slipped from his mouth out of habit, but even though he might have wished for greater tact, he found he still wanted to know Fenris's answer to that question.

The elf was silent for a while, then turned to meet his eyes. "Mage," he said, some feeling fluttering at the edge of his words. "I can't pretend to be comfortable with magic, but... omegas should be taken care of... all omegas..."

Anders made a noise, Fenris's words chiming too closely with his dread that the way he was treated might change now.

"I don't mean in daily life," Fenris said, quickly. "I don't believe omegas are soft and weak simply because they go into heat and bear children. But... _when your heat is upon you_... Someone who is so vulnerable - they should be respected. They should be cared for until they can care for themselves again. _Especially_ by any person who takes pleasure in their body when they are so affected. For a person to suddenly find that his will is not his own..."

Fenris took one of Anders' hands in his, the slight tremor in the elf's fingers passing between them. "I know it is an instinct," he went on, "to take care of one's omega. And there is a selfishness in my wanting you to let me do that. There is a need in me that I was not allowed to fulfill when I was a slave. But I want... I hope it is more than that. I do not want," his voice became choked, and Fenris paused before continuing. "I do not want you to feel that you become mine the way that I was his. This," he squeezed down on Anders' hand, "it doesn't mean that you belong to anyone. Anything you do, when you are... susceptible, you should still have a choice in that. If someone... must be in a state where his desires are not his own... the person he is with should ensure that his needs are provided for anyway. That's important to me," Fenris said, laying back on his back again.

"This cannot be another form of slavery," he said, into the near-darkness. "Or I do not want to be a part of it."

The speech was heartfelt, and Anders could feel the emotion hanging in the air between them like a shivering tension. And yet. "You've said to me before that you did not care if mages were slaves. You knew there were mages who were omegas then."

Fenris closed his eyes. Anders saw the dull gleam of a tear trickle down towards his ear in the light from his lyrium brands. "I know," he said, quietly. "I did say that. But the mages in Tevinter - the omega mages - they control who touches them. They are often less powerful, but they are not slaves. They are still treated as special. Slave omegas are not treated in that way."

He rolled back onto his side, reached towards Anders, then let his hand fall into the space between them. "I could not imagine that they would do something like this to you - take part of who you are from you. That an abuse of power, like this, could come from someone other than a mage."

Anders closed his eyes. Fenris's words pulled him first one way, and then the other. He wanted to quibble with every flawed thought, and he wanted to shove it all to one side, because every second they spent arguing was a moment when they could be moving towards Kirkwall and safety. And because he didn't know what he would do when his heat rose again if he had somehow turned Fenris against him.

"I told you the things they did to us," he said. "You can see it for yourself, in the Gallows. You know they make mages Tranquil - but somehow this is worse to you. This is what makes you think we should _sometimes_ be protected."

Fenris said nothing for some seconds, and Anders didn't want to open his eyes to look at him. "I am scared of what mages become when they are not controlled," he admitted at last. "You have so much power is at your fingertips." Fenris's fingers brushed Anders' own, and he pulled them away. "Would you not at least want a man like Danarius to be made Tranquil - to be stopped before he could do all that he has done?"

"I would want a man like Danarius _dead_ ," Anders said, opening his eyes and sitting up. "He's a monster. But he's not a monster because he's a mage. And to make him Tranquil... yes, you would put an end to the monster. But you would put a mindless puppet in its place to be your plaything. A thing that only exists to do exactly as it is told."

Fenris held his eyes, and Anders read anguish there. "I do not know what to think," he said. "I... I cannot see how else you stop a mage from doing the things that will always be in his power to do, once you know that it is something he _might_ do."

Anders raised a hand to Fenris's face and traced a line of lyrium down from his lip, his chin, onto his neck. "Enormous power rests right here. Under _your_ skin, Fenris. I know the things you might do. I have seen you do them. I've seen you do them to people like me. I don't think you should be made Tranquil for it. I don't think you should be anybody's slave. Although sometimes, you do make me afraid. But even if you crossed that line, I wouldn't want you made Tranquil. I'd want you dead." He let his hand fall. "I don't understand how you can see the way I've been begging and pleading for you to do whatever you want with me and see that that could be abused - know that that would be wrong - but still think Tranquility should ever be an option. I... when I think of Karl..." his voice broke and he closed his mouth, looking away.

Karl begging to be killed. For what they had promised each other, never really believing that it might really come to that. But of course it had. Because the reality of being a mage in Southern Thedas was worse than either of them could truly imagine when they made promises to each other in dark cupboards in Kinloch Hold.

"I'm sorry," Fenris said. A tentative hand touched his again, and this time he did not pull away. "Anders, I am sorry. I will think on what you have said. If... if you do not wish me to attend you, when we return to Kirkwall-"

"No," Anders said, the word out of his mouth before he had even processed what Fenris was saying. "I'm not saying that." Wasn't he? Shouldn't he be saying something like that? Apparently not. He took a deep breath and sighed it out.

" _I'm_ sorry," Anders said. "I knew... I knew this was a bad topic. Maker - I don't know what I..." He swallowed. "I'm... a bit confused right now. You might have noticed. But... I've been through this twice now. I... understand it better than I did before. I know I said I didn't particularly want to have sex with anyone right now, and I meant it. But I also... know I'll feel differently, when my heat starts to rise again. I don't want to go through that alone." A flash of that intense need suffused him for a moment - the memory so strong it seemed almost present. "And I don't want to go through it with someone I can't trust. What I started to say... before I got distracted..." he found Fenris's eyes in the dim light, "You kept your word. I didn't know if you would, but you did. Even though it meant neglecting yourself. Even though, in the end, I really did want you inside me."

He held Fenris's gaze. "That's what I was going to say." He held Fenris's hand in his and rubbed the inside of his wrist. "That next time I want you inside me. I want you to knot me like you did before."

Fenris's eyes were wide. "Are you sure?"

Anders nodded. "Whatever I feel now, I will want it then. And I trust you to do it. I want you to look after me, when I can't look after myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, I really thought we were going to get to Kirkwall with this one, but apparently Anders wanted to have the talk I was planning for several chapters down the line NOW. Sorry no sexy times, but I hope you enjoyed the angst?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders and Co reach Kirkwall, racing against time to get to Fenris's mansion safely before his heat rises again.

Packing up the tent was uncomfortably prosaic after the intimacy of what Fenris had done for him at the height of his heat and the deeper emotional intimacy of their discussion afterwards. But it wasn't something Anders wanted to let Fenris do alone, not when he was enough himself to behave like a normal, capable human being again.

Handing Hawke's carefully folded, blankets back to her, aware of the unmistakable smell of sex rising up of them, was an embarrassment he could have done without, but one he deserved to endure, given that he was the cause of said stink.

Hawke laid her hand over his as he passed them over, holding him there for a moment. "Are you OK, Anders?" she asked, concern replacing the teasing she had given him before, when she had first found out what he was.

There was a delicious shiver that went through him at the touch of another alpha - not his mate - a transgressiveness that he held onto for a moment before pulling away. "I'm fine, Hawke."

She nodded, but didn't look convinced. "It's just... I know you were arguing. You sounded upset. If this isn't what you want. If it's just something you feel you have to do... there are other options. And I'm not saying this as an alpha. Don't tell her I told you, but I'm happy with Isabela. And definitely don't tell Mother, but I'm not looking for an omega. When we get back to Kirkwall, you can go with Merrill. Or if you want to go to your clinic, we can-"

"Hawke, _stop_ ," he said. "This _is_ what I want. Maybe not forever, but for now. And... I _am_ upset. I'm not going to pretend that I'm not. And I'm _furious._ I'm almost glad the heat is so powerful, or I don't know what I might do. Justice..." That other part of himself stirred as he said his name, but he pushed the spirit away. "It doesn't matter. Fenris is being... more than kind. Much more than I would have thought. I trust him. I want to see this through with him."

Hawke looked deeply into his eyes, and when she nodded this time, she seemed satisfied with what she saw. "OK," she said. "Then let's get moving."

Hawke and Merrill had begun taking down the camp when they'd heard Anders and Fenris move from fucking to arguing, so it wasn't long before they were able to head out, and Anders set a fast pace. No one complained about his long legs this time. They all knew they were on a clock. They would very likely reach Kirkwall before his heat rose again, but if it were to hit while they were still making their way through the streets to Hightown, it could mean trouble.

They entered the city through Lowtown and actually passed through without incident. Anders could feel eyes upon him. It was late - gone midnight - but the streets were not empty. The gangs would have quietened down now that the traffic of Kirkwall's more respectable nightlife (such that it was) had passed, but many people still slept rough, and he couldn't help but wonder what the street walkers who tried to catch his eye made of him.

Could they smell it on him? Not as strong as it would be when the heat gripped him fully, but... was there an underlying scent he still gave out that they could detect, or was he imagining it?

Fenris and Hawke walked on either side. It was protective, but a little claustrophobic. Like he was a precious package they wanted to keep safe.

Then, as they started up the steps to Hightown, the heat hit him like a wave. Stronger this time. His skin warm and clammy. An ache in his guts and deep down in his crotch almost like a punch to the stomach.

He gasped and stopped in his tracks.

The weight of Fenris's hand on his shoulder was a touch that he leaned into, moaning.

"Anders," Hawke's voice.

Fenris pulled Anders bodily behind him, stepping between him and Hawke. He didn't even resist. The smell of Fenris - protectiveness, power, aggression, but not directed at him - it folded about him and he sank into it, leaning against Fenris's back.

"Fenris, I'm not going to do anything," Hawke snapped. "I'm not even interested. I was just checking if he's OK."

"Of course you are interested," Fenris said, his voice low and dangerous and so. Fucking. Sexy. "He's beautiful, and he is _mine_."

 _His_. Yes.

Anders kissed Fenris's neck, but the elf didn't move, his muscles tense and ready to fight under Anders' lips.

Merrill was stepping between Hawke and Fenris now. "That's fine, Fenris. Hawke is going to step back a little and we're all..."

The sound of boots above them, further up the flight of steps. Lots of boots.

Fenris pushed Anders back against the wall and drew his sword in one smooth motion. His fierce alpha. Anders had a sense that he should probably be scared, but the throbbing was pulsing deep within him and seeing Fenris's prowess - his willingness to fight for him - was captivating.

"Fenris, stand down," Hawke hissed. "It's the guard. We don't want trouble right now."

A woman led the guard down towards them, but stopped several meters from Fenris. Her eyes flitted around the group. They settled first on Merrill, and then on himself.

"Serrah," she said. "Are you in heat?"

Fenris adjusted his grip on his sword. "You cannot have him."

"I have no interest in having him," the guard said coldly. "But my orders are very clear: any omega in heat is under protection of the guard, and we will escort him to a place of safety of _his_ choosing. So I'm asking you again," she looked Anders in the eye. "Are you in heat?"

Anders swallowed and nodded. "Yes."

"Is one of these people your mate?" she asked.

"We - we're not bonded, but yes," Anders said. "Fenris is taking care of me."

"And do you _want_ him to take care of you," she pressed. "Have you chosen him?"

He nodded again. "Yes. We were heading to his house. We just... didn't quite make it."

The guard seemed to relax, though her eyes flicked warily to Fenris. "Good. If that's where you would like to go, we will escort you."

" _I_ am escorting him," Fenris said, stepping in front of Anders again.

"Fenris," Hawke said. "Be reasonable. They just want to help. Even Hightown is dangerous at night. They're under orders from _Aveline_ ; they aren't going to do anything."

Fenris grunted, and Anders watched his shoulders rise and fall as he took deep, steadying breaths. Finally his posture seemed to relax. "I... apologise. It is... important to me that he is safe."

A warm glow suffused Anders at those words - he was important to Fenris; Fenris wanted him to be safe. He longed to fold Fenris into his arms here and now. It took a force of will not to do just that, right in front of the guard.

"We want that too," the sergeant said. "Where is your house, serrah? We will be happy to take him there."

"Maybe..." Merrill started, then faltered as all eyes turned to her. "That is... perhaps it would be best if we went to Hawke's - just for now," she added quickly as Fenris rounded on her. "I just mean... these lovely guard people maybe don't need to go all the way to _Fenris's mansion_ just now, do they?" She raised her eyebrows pointedly.

"What is wrong with-" Fenris began.

"You know what Aveline says... about that mansion." Merrill was staring hard at Fenris now, and Anders caught her meaning. Fenris did not own the mansion. He was squatting illegally. Dead bodies mouldered in its foyer. "Hawke's place is a lot closer," she added quickly.

Anders laid a hand on Fenris's shoulder. "Just for now," he whispered in the elf's ear, and heard his breath catch. "You can make a den... perfect for me. After. But I'm already..." Fenris's scent was all about him now and he wanted to just bury his face in the elf's hair and breathe it in. "I'm already... ready. Please," Anders whispered, teeth grazing his ear.

Fenris turned in his grasp, seizing Anders' head and pulling if down to him. Pressing their lips together. Breathing hard.

It was an effort, fighting against his every instinct, but he pushed back from his alpha's attentions, relieved when Fenris let him do it. "To Hawke's first," he said. "Just for this time."

"And then to mine," Fenris said. "And I will make you a proper den."

"Yes," Anders said.

The elf nodded and took Anders' hand. "We will go to the Amell estate. Now."

A smile caught the lips of the sergeant before she nodded and turned. "Yes, ser," she said. "Guards, fan out. Keep the omega in the middle and give his alpha space."

Anders was surprised to realise he rather enjoyed the feeling of so many people surrounding him - not to capture, but to protect.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \o/ I got them to Kirkwall again. Next chapter: SMUT.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally alone, the heat takes over Anders and Fenris. They fuck.

Allowing the guard to encircle them as they guided _his_ omega to _someone else's_ house took an effort Fenris could not have imagined.

 _I allow this_ , he told himself.

 _I allow this_.

And yet, there was also a kind of pride. No one had challenged him for his omega. His claim was respected. Even though the omega was a mage. And though he knew - had been forced to admit by everything he had learnt in the past few hours - that to be a mage was something very different here, it still gave him a thrill.

A mage had chosen him.

A mage would submit himself to him. Had already submitted to him twice.

He breathed in deeply and filled his head with Anders. His omega. And the need, palpable in the air around them now, mixed with his own scents of possession, domination, challenge.

A challenge that all had backed down from.

The thought was heady, and he longed to pull Anders into his arms right now. Push him against a Hightown wall and fuck him in the street.

But no. That wasn't what Anders had wanted, and Fenris retained just enough sense to respect that. He found Anders' hand with his own instead, and was gratified to hear his omega moan at the touch.

 _Soon_.

Stepping into another alpha's house when his omega was in heat was harder than allowing the guard to escort them.

This was wrong. It should be his house. His den. Everything inside would smell of Hawke. All of the things that surrounded them would be Hawke's. The bed they fucked in would be Hawke's. He hesitated at the doorway.

"Serrah," the sergeant was saying to Anders. "Are you sure this is where you want to be, and who you want to be with?"

He heard Anders' assent, and pulled him closer.

"It will be alright, Fenris," Anders whispered in his ear. "This is just a safe place to hole up for now. Next time..."

"I _know_ ," Fenris snapped, then collected himself, reaching up to stroke the side of Anders' neck to reassure him. "I know," he said, more gently. "It is just... hard. It will pass."

Anders tilted Fenris's chin upward, forcing their eyes to meet. A shiver ran through him, and his cock twitched at that moment of connection.

Such beautiful brown eyes.

Hawke said something to dismiss the guard, and then turned to them. "Come on, I'll show you to the room you can use," she said.

Fenris's eyes met hers and she took a step back.

Anders kissed him on the forehead. "Stop it, Fenris. I need you to fuck me. Just let Hawke take us somewhere you can fuck me."

How to say no to that?

He relented and allowed himself to be led through Hawke's estate, past a staring pair of dwarves and a curious dog. Barely hearing the query from Hawke's mother and her answer. Finally to a dark oak door, well away from the entrance and the main rooms of the house.

"Here," Hawke said. Her hand barely opened it a crack before Fenris pushed past and dragged Anders through with him.

The mage was laughing as Fenris slammed the door behind them, and Fenris span him around to push him back against it. Took his hands and pinned them above his head.

Anders writhed, holding his eyes. "You're going to fuck me?" he asked, breathless.

"Yes," Fenris said. He had to release the mage's arms to undress him - if the man were shorter he could have used one hand to pin them and the other to rip at his clothes, but his omega was so tall. Tall and broad and utterly his. His to have. His to fuck.

Fenris gripped the fabric at Anders' neck and tore down, ripping the old tunic, releasing more of Anders' intoxicating scent. At some point the mage had unbuckled his coat. Good. Nothing to hold him back, Fenris forced the fabric apart in tatters, revealing the hard planes of Anders' chest, his skin now covered with a thin sheen of sweat.

Fenris buried his face against the bare skin of his omega, inhaling his scent, shoving the remains of Anders' clothes apart with his hands and gripping the man hard, holding their torsos together, grazing teeth against his skin, lathing a tongue over muscles and sweet omega flesh - biting down, hard, and hearing Anders moan.

"Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," the mage was muttering. He was pulling at Fenris's armour, and though he hated to part from the flesh of his mate even for a second, he knew that he, too, had to undress.

Anders had worked off the buckle of one pauldron by the time time Fenris forced himself to stand straight and tackle his armour with more efficiency.

"Yes," Anders said, with evident satisfaction, shrugging off his coat and the remains of his tunic, before moving on to his trousers, where Fenris could now see a very noticeable bulge.

The scent of _sex_ and _heat_ that wafted up from Anders as he bared his cock and arse made Fenris stagger. He could smell the fluids that would be leaking from Anders' hole, preparing him, making sure he was ready for Fenris's cock.

Forgetting his armour, Fenris shoved Anders back against the door and kissed him - hard. Mashing their mouths together with need.

Anders pushed back. " _No_ ," he said. "You get naked," the mage insisted. "I want both of us naked. Now."

Fenris laughed, breathless, relieved that Anders' refusal was not a rejection.

He started pulling at his armour again, and nearly stumbled as Anders pushed him back towards the bed.

"You're going to fuck me decently," the mage was saying. "In a proper bed."

"Yes," Fenris managed, letting his breast plate fall and pulling his own tunic off over his head.

Anders pushed at him again and Fenris grinned back. His omega was eager, but it was time to take control.

"You want to be fucked?" He took Anders by the shoulders and turned him around, pushing him forward over the foot of the bed. "I'll fuck you," he said, then bit down, high on Anders' neck, away from the scent gland, then scraped his teeth down across the skin until he reached Anders' back, the mage moaning and shuddering under his grip.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, please, fuck me."

Fenris straightened and shoved his leggings down, baring his now red and aching cock.

Anders' shapely arse was displayed before him, the edges wet with fluids, their intoxicating scent overwhelming now.

He spread those firm globes of flesh wide in his hands, revelling as Anders moaned, grinning to see the flushed pink hole revealed, waiting for his cock.

"Mine," he said, squeezing Anders' flesh.

"Yes," the mage moaned beneath his hands, and just that acknowledgement of ownership made his cock jump.

He wanted this. The mage really wanted to be speared on his cock.

He could do that.

He slid in so easily to that hot, wet flesh. The readiness of an omega in heat was sinfully delicious.

Anders writhed and whined about him, and Fenris squeezed down on the man's arse to hold him steady.

His omega encased his cock. He gasped and shuddered, overwhelmed, until Anders shifted beneath him again and he began to move.

Fucking him. Spearing him. Moving smoothly within that waiting, wanton flesh.

He ran his hands lovingly up the skin of Anders' back, noticing now as he had not before the fine scars that criss-crossed it. Worrying, but a question for another time. His omega was still beautiful. Still perfect. Still his.

They might not be bonded, but Anders had chosen him - really chosen him this time. Not out of fogged need, as he had in the tunnels, and not simply to take care of him until the heat passed. He wanted him, all of him, had said so soberly and with full awareness of their differences. He wanted him anyway.

The satisfaction of it made him press deeper, and he heard Anders moan in response.

That was good, too.

He pulled almost all the way out, and pressed deeply in again, enjoying the noises the mage made.

This time his cock caught just a little on Anders' welcoming ring. His knot was starting to form.

"Mage," he gasped. "You mean it? You want this?"

"Yes," the mage said, gasping against the covers. "Oh, Maker, yes. Knot me. Fill me. I want to feel you twitching within me. I want you to fill me up so I'm more you than me. I want your come pumping into me in never-ending spurts. I-" Fenris thrust in again, the knot bigger this time, making them both groan. "I want you to own me. I want you to possess me. I want," Anders moaned as Fenris pulled out again, cried out as he thrust back in - Fenris feeling the muscle of Anders' ring stretching about him, "I want you hard and solid inside," he went on, his voice higher and more breathy now, "I want it so I can't ignore how big you are, how-" he gasped as Fenris's knot pressed back against the inside of his entrance again, "No! Don't pull out. Don't pull out."

Fenris groaned against him. He was sure he could go out and in one more time. Wanted to feel Anders' arse stretching about him once more. Wanted to feel just how big he had become... but he wouldn't disobey his mage.

Instead, he wrapped his arms about Anders and pushed further in, rubbing what he hoped was the sweet spot inside.

From the moan Anders made, he suspected he was correct.

"You have a dirty mouth, mage," he said, his voice low against Anders ear.

"Mmm-mmm," Anders murmured, lost for a moment to the pleasure. "Do that again," he gasped.

Fenris smirked, released Anders and put his hands on the sheets to steady himself, then pulled back as far as he could without pulling out, both of them groaning to feel Anders' ring pressed against him, then shoved forward again.

Fenris revelled in Anders' cry of pleasure. He was so close himself, holding back on a knife edge. And then Anders squeezed down about him, and it was too much. His knot swelled to its full size, and he came.

It felt like he poured himself into the omega in a torrent. Hot and hard at his base, and twitching deep into Anders' arse. Surrounded by him. Overwhelmed with him.

His arms clutched about the man instinctively, but he had very little control. Lost to the pleasure. To the spurt after spurt of his come shooting into that hot wet hole as his knot stuttered against an entrance far too small to permit exit.

They were locked together.

Sealed.

"You're mine," he murmured into Anders' ear.

"Mmm," he heard, dimly, as a response.

 _His_.

His omega.

Filling with his seed.

Locked to him so no other could invade this sacred space. This warmth that belonged only to him now.

Him and his twitching cock and swollen, aching balls, pouring forth his seed in delicious spurts that were all that mattered in the world.

Eventually, he came back enough to himself to feel Anders slapping at his thigh.

"This is not a very sociable position, you know," Anders was saying. "We're going to be here a while and I can't even see your face."

"Mmm," Fenris muttered, unable to summon the energy for further speech, still too focused on that twitching, sensitive part of him that was pulsing between his legs, inside Anders.

"Can we at least get properly on the bed?" Anders asked. "I don't mind spooning, I just..."

The jolting scrabble of Anders' legs beneath him cut through Fenris's orgasmic haze enough to be annoying. Then his arse pressed abruptly up against Fenris and the motion sent him into white-hot pleasure again.

It must have done something for Anders' too, as his efforts to move them briefly ceased.

They were both panting now.

Finally, Anders said. "Fenris, can you please help me? I just want to get fully on the bed."

"Sorry," Fenris managed. "Sorry. It... it is hard to think clearly, when... when..." when he was still coming, his cock twitching inside someone else. Inside Anders.

But the mage was right. What had worked for fucking was a very awkward position to maintain for a protracted period. His legs already felt the discomfort.

In a haze, Fenris wrapped his arms around Anders to keep them together, straightened a little, then collapsed forward, a little further onto the bed.

Anders was laughing. He could feel the vibrations on his cock.

"Anders, please," he said.

"What was that?" the man asked. "Some kind of sex-fish belly-flop?"

"I can't do anymore right now," he said. Still oh-so-aware of his cock twitching and spurting inside Anders.

Anders recovered enough from his laughing fit to sigh. "Alright then," he said, catching one of Fenris's hand and bringing it to his mouth to kiss. "This'll do for now. We'll sort it out later."

Finally, the mage stilled, and Fenris pulled him close in the circle of his arms.

He was filling his omega up with sperm, and this time, no one would disturb them until he was done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping to get to some talky bits after this, but good lord am I ill right now. Hope you enjoyed the smut :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders and Fenris lay together, knotted, recovering from their third mating. They talk and Anders has an unexpected reaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for... I don't know, exploring the way knotting is problematic even if both parties consent beforehand?

When his release finally came, Fenris clutched tightly to Anders, shuddering as his cock gave out its final spurts of come, then gasping as his muscles relaxed.

Well, some of them. His cock was still rock hard and incredibly sensitive, his knot swollen in place, but his spent balls merely throbbed with an exertion that had ended.

"Are you done?"

The mage. No. Not merely 'the mage'. Anders. His omega. Teasing him.

He smiled weakly. "Yes," he said, pressing his lips to Anders' back.

"Good. Can you help me get properly on the bed?"

It was still hard to focus anywhere but on his cock, but Fenris did have a growing awareness that his awkward move to shift them had only partially succeeded. Both their legs now dangled, tangled together, over the edge.

"Sorry," he said. "It is... tiring."

He supposed he should make the effort. He didn't want Anders shifting around trying to move them again. Not while his cock was still stuck in the man's arse, making him acutely aware of every movement.

Fenris wrapped one arm around Anders' torso and put the other over his hips to steady them and keep them together. He brushed Anders' softening cock in the process.

"Mmm," the mage moaned.

"Don't." He had heard that omegas could sometimes get off a second time while their alphas were still locked within them, but he didn't have the energy for Anders to get going again.

Anders snorted. " _I_ didn't do anything."

"Just hold still a moment."

He didn't say anything, but Anders stilled, and Fenris took the moment to find purchase on the bed post and lever them further onto the mattress.

If he'd thought he could avoid jostling his cock with such a maneuver, he was wrong. Fenris gasped as his knot was pulled between Anders arsehole and the stretch of his leg, the rest of his body going limp with mixed pleasure and pain.

"Are you alright?" Anders asked, peering back over his shoulder.

"I will be," Fenris managed. "But please... please tell me we don't have to move anymore."

Anders' hand patting his arm. "Sorry. This... it'll do. Let's just... let's start _on_ the bed if we do this again, OK? Fully on the bed. Preferably facing each other. I don't mind this position as a rule, but... if we're going to be stuck here like this... I'd like to be able to see your face."

"Whatever you want," Fenris said, not really listening. Too aware of the throbbing between his legs, the warm press of Anders all around him.

"Oh," the mage said, "I forgot."

Suddenly the tension eased, not only the pain in his abused member, but the ever-present background burn of the markings in his skin. Anders' healing aura. He opened his eyes.

"Thank you."

Anders shrugged. "Benefits of fucking a healer."

Fenris ran a hand down Anders' arm, enjoying the smooth, pale skin, and kissed his shoulder. "It is... novel." His lips mouthed over the soft space at the crook of Anders' neck and shoulder where his scent gland would be.

"Mmm," Anders moaned again. "Maker... you have no idea," he said breathlessly. "I thought necking was good before... how could I not know there was something there just waiting to develop that would make it so..." He squirmed, and Fenris licked his tongue over the spot to encourage him, until the mage's arse squeezed down on his cock and he saw stars.

Fenris gasped and Anders laughed breathlessly. " _You_ did that - again. Don't do things like that if you don't want to get me going."

"Sorry," Fenris said, struggling to recover his train of thought. "I wasn't thinking. Your magic... what you're doing... it made everything seem so... easy. Clean. I - I forgot."

"You forgot you had your cock up my arse?"

"Something like that."

They lay quietly for a time; Fenris catching his breath, eyes tracing the line of Anders' shoulders, his neck, his tousled hair.

There was a small hole in Anders' ear that he had never noticed before. He touched the lobe gently with thumb and forefinger. "Your ear is pierced."

Anders shifted, but didn't pull away. "Yes," he said. "I did that... oh, the fifth time I escaped. Got in with this gang of idiots that seemed... sort of daring at the time. And one of them, Detton, she had tattoos and a half-shaved head and nine piercings - not all in her ears - and she... persuaded me, I guess. I thought it would make me seem daring, like them, but I must have looked so green..." he trailed off.

Fenris let go of his ear and gently kissed his neck. "I like it," he whispered.

He ran his fingers down from Anders' neck to his shoulders, finding the fine tracery of a scar, following it further down his back.

Anders twitched. "Don't."

Fenris moved his hand away, reaching it down to rest over Anders' stomach instead. "Not a battle scar."

"No."

No. Too straight. Too fine. He'd seen scars like that.

"They..."

"I said, _don't_."

Anders shifted away from him - at the shoulders at least, they remained irrevocably joined at the hips.

"Mage," he said. "I'm not trying to-"

"Then _don't_ ," Anders said, throwing aside the arm that had wrapped about him. "You've said quite enough on that subject already. I don't need to hear _right now_ how you think it's _perfectly reasonable_ to punish mages for what they _might do_ if they were free."

He was trembling. They were still joined together and his mage was trembling with fear. What had he done?

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Anders, I'm sorry." Without thinking, he put his hand on the man's shoulder to try to comfort him, and Anders flinched away.

"I - I-" Anders pushed back against his hip and Fenris gasped in pain as the motion pulled on his knot, still stuck inside Anders. "I need to - I can't do this!" He pushed again, and the pain was blinding.

Frantically, Fenris threw his arms around Anders to hold them together. The mage was still pushing against him, and he didn't know what to do. No part of him wanted to be holding on to someone who didn't want his touch, but they were still tied together, and Anders could hurt them both very badly if he kept trying to push them apart.

"Anders, please, we're still tied, I'm sorry, we-"

The fight went out of the mage abruptly, but Fenris could feel the man shaking against him and breathing hard.

"Anders," he said, not wanting to move and scare the mage further. "Anders - I don't want you to be tied to me if this isn't what you want, but I don't know what to do. I-is there some spell - some way to make the knot subside?"

Anders gulped strangled breaths. "I - I don't..."

What had he done? He knew his omega was fragile - everything he had been through, not even knowing that he was an omega - he never should have knotted him. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "Please, if you need to use magic, you can do that. I don't want to hurt you."

Anders hand closed over his on his hip and squeezed. He was still breathing raggedly, but Fenris let him take the time to find the words to speak.

"Sorry," he said at last. He pulled shakily on Fenris's hand, and Fenris let him bring it to his lips to kiss. "You don't need to do that," he said. "It's not your fault. Sorry - it was just... it just got a bit much. Suddenly I'm sharing everything with you, and you want to know..."

"You don't have to tell me," Fenris said quickly.

Anders squeezed his hand again. "It's OK, I don't even know it was that, exactly. It was like it was just suddenly all too much. I'd wanted to just... have sex, and forget the rest. But it's not just sex, is it? It's this... lying here afterwards. It's you asking about my scars and..."

"Mage..." How could he express his sorrow? What words could undo what he'd done?

"It's OK," Anders said. "I really... I really didn't see that coming either." He laughed. "I guess there's just a lot... going on in my head right now." He rubbed Fenris's arm. "It wasn't your fault. And, umm, I'm not... I'm not unaware of what it means to you to offer me that. To let me use magic on you - on your knot. I'm not going to do that."

"If it's what you need..."

"It's not. There, ah, there are ways," he said. "for if... for if a knotting goes on too long and won't go down. But they're not magic. And they'd be very uncomfortable for you. We don't need to do any of that. I'm fine. Really."

Fenris was not convinced. "We should not do this again," he said. "Not if... not if you're not sure."

Anders sighed. "It's not that I wasn't sure, Fenris, I just..."

"You just have a lot going on in your head right now," Fenris finished for him. "You need rest, and time to think. Not this."

Anders was silent for a while, then said, quietly: "I did need this, too."

"I don't have to knot you to help cool your heat," Fenris said. "I won't knot you again unless you're sure it's what you want with your whole heart."

Anders sighed again, but Fenris saw him nod. "Alright."

"Alright," he confirmed, and pulled Anders closer to him.

They lay like that until, finally, Fenris felt his knot deflate on its own. He pulled out, his cock feeling limp and sore, but was gratified when Anders turned to face him, and pulled him in for a kiss.

"I mean it," he said when the kiss broke, holding Fenris's face between his hands. "That wasn't your fault."

Fenris gave a tired smile. "Perhaps," he said, "but my job is to keep you safe, and you're not safe if you need to leave and you can't."

"Fenris," Anders said, a gleam in his eye, "I _like_ your knot."

His cheeks flushed. "Be that as it may," he said. "I don't want to do that again until I'm sure you will like it for the duration."

Anders rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. "Fine," he said, rolling over onto his back, tiredness reflected in his features.

They had been up all night, Fenris realised. Surely at some point the heat must allow them to sleep.

It would be so much easier if they were in his bed and could rest as long as they liked.

Well, perhaps Anders could rest some.

Fenris bent over him and kissed his forehead. "Get some sleep," he said. "I promise, I will take care of you."

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders wakes up, full of affection for his mate. Fenris takes him back to the mansion to show Anders the den he has prepared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of an angst reprieve <3

Anders didn't realise he had fallen asleep until Fenris's lips on his cheek woke him.

His heat had died down, but with Fenris leaning over him and him still laying in the bed where they had mated, the scent of the elf filled his nostrils.

Warm and comforting. _Mate_.

He wanted to roll around in that smell and pull Fenris to him and never let go. For the first time, he felt a yearning for that scent to mean something more. Not just mate, but _bondmate_.

The impulse surprised him. He had never wanted to bond with anyone... except Justice, but that was different. And he didn't want to think about what bonding with someone else would mean for his joining with the spirit.

He didn't really want to think at all. But he remembered Fenris's tongue pressing down over his scent gland as they lay tied together and felt his cock twitch and his anus clamp down on an imaginary dick that was no longer there. Bonding - with Fenris of all people - was the last thing he wanted to do. Intellectually, anyway. But his body wanted something different. His body was atuning itself to his mate and wanted to pull him closer. To guarantee a father for the child that was almost certainly _not_ forming in his womb.

"Good morning," Fenris said, the low rumble of his voice a pleasant reassurance. "I am sorry to wake you, but I have prepared a den in my house. We just have to move once more, and then you can rest as long as you like."

Anders made a small noise of frustration. "Or as long as this heat allows," he said.

"That too," Fenris said with an easy smile, one that birthed unfamiliar butterflies in Anders stomach.

He reminded himself that it was common for omegas to want to bond with their first mate, and why this was cautioned against. That the first heat was often 'false' - a trial run for the body, with no egg released - and that this was especially likely in his case, with his heats having been suppressed for years and the infertility often caused by the darkspawn taint. That the high of a first mating combined with a partner of circumstance, rather than choice, often led to bad decision-making. And that Fenris was not someone he would ever have considered even simply fucking before yesterday.

Still, with his fine features, large green eyes, and well-toned muscles, the man was not hard to look at. And Anders was not ignorant of all Fenris was doing to take care of him.

"Thank you," he said, reaching across to give Fenris's hand a gentle squeeze before forcing himself to sit up and get out of bed.

Fenris smiled and bent to pick something up from the floor, which he handed to Anders.

A deep red shirt: new, and clean, and soft to the touch.

"I... was not gentle on your clothing earlier. I hope this will fit."

Warmth rushed to Anders' cheeks and the butterflies fluttered again in his stomach. It was not a courting gift. It was a replacement for something damaged.

It was nice, though. A gorgeous colour that would go very well with his hair.

"Thank you," he said quietly, and took the shirt from Fenris.

Fenris's smile as Anders slipped the shirt on was uncharacteristically open and warm. His mate was appreciating how his gift looked on Anders.

 _Not a courting gift. Not a courting gift_ , Anders told himself.

When Anders was fully dressed, Fenris took his hand and began to lead him from the room, but as he walked, Anders noticed a stiffness to the elf's gait. He pulled back on Fenris's hand to stop him.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked, frowning.

"Nothing," Fenris said. "It's fine."

He started to move forward again, but then memories from their last mating came back to Anders in full force. He had tried to pull free of Fenris while they were still tied together. Quite forcefully. Several times. And his healing aura must have dropped with his panic attack. "Shit!" Anders said, the warm glow he had woken with disappearing entirely. "Why didn't you say anything? I would have healed you straight away! I wasn't thinking! Here." Anders raised his healing aura and reached for Fenris's cock.

Fenris caught his hand. "It's fine," Fenris said. "You don't have to do anything."

Anders held his eyes. "If you don't want me to use magic, I won't. But if it's not that, just let me heal you. I'm not letting you hobble around with a broken cock.

Fenris looked away and coughed. "It's not broken."

"But it still hurts, right?"

Not meeting his eyes, Fenris nodded.

"Will you let me heal it?" Anders pressed.

Fenris sighed, but nodded again.

Anders laid his hand gently on Fenris's length, sensing the tears in the sensitive flesh, and let his magic flow.

The relief in Fenris's released breath told Anders everything he needed to know. Letting go of the man's cock, he met his eyes.

"That wasn't your fault," he said, seriously. "Don't just... decide to punish yourself with something _I_ did when you know I can fix it for you."

The memory of trying to pull away while Fenris restrained him rose to the surface again and he drew the elf into his embrace. "I'm sorry," he whispered into Fenris's ear. "I shouldn't have done that. You need to let me undo things when I... when I _hurt_ you."

"It wasn't your fault either," Fenris said at last.

"I don't care," Anders said, pulling away and glaring at Fenris now. "You _tell_ me if I hurt you. Always."

Fenris smiled, affection overcoming the concern written on his face. "Alright, mage. I promise. Now let me take you to our new den."

***

The dilapidated mansion was not exactly clean, but it was obvious that Fenris had made an effort.

"The bodies are gone," he said, surprised.

Fenris cleared his throat. "They're in the courtyard, for now. I will need to think about how to dispose of them properly later. I... wanted this place to rot. Because it is _his_. Still. But I could not lead a mate into a place of death. I'm sorry I have nothing better to offer."

Anders squeezed his hand. "I appreciate it," he said. And he did. He understood the impulse towards revenge, and was not unaware of the significance of Fenris setting aside something so important to him. One did not leave dead bodies to mummify in one's home by accident. The violence - even the grotesquerie of the action - spoke to a depth of feeling. One that had been set aside for him.

"It is better in my room," Fenris went on. "There wasn't time to do more."

Anders allowed himself to be led up the stairs and to the master bedroom, which Fenris had taken for himself.

Inside was a contrast to the forbidding aspect of the rest of the house. It was daytime - still early morning - but candles were lit to supplement the light streaming through the broken ceiling. A scent wafted up from them - savory and spicy. Anders recognised it as something sold to complement mating smells and the scents of omegas in heat.

The bed linen was not merely clean, but looked new - it still showed the creases of being folded for display - and there were velvet drapes hanging from the posts that Anders strongly suspected had not been there yesterday. Fabric had also been draped over the top, so that if Anders wished to sleep during the day the curtains could be drawn and the bed would be secluded in darkness. A new rug lay next to the bed, and cushions were strewn, well, everywhere. On the bed, on the floor. The message was clear: wherever Anders wanted to be, he would be in comfort.

He was acutely conscious that  no one had ever spent this much on him in his _life._ And Fenris had done so with no reason to think that Anders would want to be with him again once the remaining days of his heat were over.

"Where did you get all this?" he asked.

"You like it?" Fenris asked, anxiety and hope written on his face.

Anders reminded himself how important it was to an alpha that their omega approve of the den - especially as he had responded poorly to the last one.

"I love it," he said. "But you didn't need to do all this..."

Fenris smiled at him. "I told you. I have long wanted to care for an omega as I should have done for those others in Tevinter. Let me do this for you," he said, raising Anders fingers to his lips to kiss. "Let me make up for all the heats you should have had. All the times there should have been someone to take care of you."

Anders felt his throat close with unexpected emotion, nodding as he found himself deprived of speech. He had forgotten, for a moment, what had been done to him. And he found that, yes, he dearly wanted to be taken care of. Even Justice stirred in agreement, and he felt the spirit's surprised empathy with the elf: someone should have taken care of Anders before he could be hurt as he had been, and it was good that someone was going to take care of him now.

Fenris led him to the bed and encouraged him to get in while the elf removed his armour.

Anders enjoyed watching him undress. He did not remove his clothes this time, but there was still a vulnerability in seeing the warrior without all his spikes and leather and metal. Anders slipped in under the covers, enjoying their softness, and the awareness that Fenris had thought about how heightened his senses would be in his heat, making sure everything was right for his comfort.

At last, Fenris slipped in beside him, pulling the curtains about them. In the darkness, Anders smiled to feel his mate's arms close about him - Fenris's lips through the fabric of his new shirt as he kissed his shoulder.

"Let us try to rest a bit more before your heat rises again," Fenris said, and Anders rolled to face him, pulling the elf's slender but solid form against his.

"Yes," he said. "Thank you, Fenris. Everything is perfect."


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris helps Anders through his heat rising again.

Anders awoke to warmth, and moistness between his butt cheeks. He ached to be filled. He needed Fenris.

He could sense the form of his mate behind him and rolled over to face the elf. In the darkness, he couldn't make much out, but Anders knew he was there. He felt for Fenris's arm and stroked it.

"Mmm," Fenris grunted.

"Hey," Anders said. "Wake up, I need you."

A shift in the bed let him know Fenris was waking.

"My mate," the warrior whispered, his deep voice rough with sleep and doing something unspeakable to Anders already churning insides.

Fingers in his hair. The sound of inhaled breath.

"It's time again?"

Anders sighed. "Yes, I'm sorry. I know you've hardly slept, but I need you."

"Don't apologise, mage." He moved closer, one hand resting on Anders' neck and a leg nudging between his to twine them together. "I want to take care of you."

Soft lips on his in the darkness, He opened his mouth and was rewarded by a wet tongue gliding over his own. Anders groaned and grasped Fenris's arse to pull him closer, fingers digging into the firm flesh, their cocks rubbing together through the fabric of their clothes.

"I need you inside me," he whispered. "Nothing else matters. I want you. I want you so deep, filling me up - stretching me out - locking with me so I'm yours and you're mine and no one can come between us."

Fenris's breath on his cheek. "You know I'm not going to do that."

Distantly, he did. I knew it had ended badly the last time, and he didn't want to hurt Fenris again, but... "No, no, I need you!" He heard the petulance in his own voice, but couldn't hold it back. "It won't happen again. I want you so badly."

Soft lips on his forehead - a gentle kiss.

"Perhaps," Fenris said. "But when I come in you and your humours settle you may feel differently. I promise I will take care of you, mage, but we will find another way." Fenris disentangled himself and rolled towards the edge of the bed.

The noise Anders made was pained and animal. "No, please, where are you going? Don't leave me!"

"I won't be long," Fenris said, squeezing his hand. "I am going to draw you a cool bath. It will help."

"Nooo," Anders moaned as Fenris's fingers slipped from his and he drew the bed-curtains back. Bright sunlight filtered in and Anders buried his face in a pillow. How could his mate abandon him like this?

Fenris was gone. Had left him to struggle with this alone. With this ache inside.

It was too much. He reached between his legs, fingers groping for his hole, slipping on the fluids that coated his skin. He found the bump of his ring and pressed in. He was so warm in there! Hot and slick and waiting.

He pressed in further and began rubbing back and forth. The sensation was intoxicating, but it was not enough. He wanted the stretch of a knot forcing him wide, and his fingers were nothing to that. He slipped a second finger in, and then a greedy third, forcing all three up past the second knuckle, rubbing back and forth, finding that hot, sensitive space inside and pressing down.

He groaned. He was close, but not close enough. His fingers were nothing to the pull and press of Fenris's knot.

Eyes squeezed tight, focused on groping inside his hole, he didn't notice Fenris return.

"Shhh, shhh," the elf murmured, gently laying a hand on Anders' arm and pulling it back.

Anders knew he was a mess, full of petulant noises and desperation, but it was hard to care. "Please," he begged, looking into Fenris's deep green eyes. "I need you inside me."

Fenris bent down and kissed his forehead. "Come here, mage," he said, and gathered Anders into his arms.

It was strange to be so easily bundled up and lifted, but Fenris was so strong, and the light of his brands was lit to augment that strength. Fenris lifted him as though he were nothing and carried him through into the bathroom.

The elf was already naked - how far gone was he that he hadn't even noticed that until now? He laid Anders gently down next to the bath sunk into the floor - a foreign design. Was that Tevene or Dwarven? It didn't matter. Fenris was stripping Anders of his clothes and now they could finally be skin to skin.

Anders reached for Fenris, but the elf caught his arms and turned him round, towards the water.

"Get in, mage," he said. "The water should be cool, but not cold. You'll find it helps."

Anders leant back against him, groaning, just wanting to be with Fenris.

The elf gave him a gentle push and he sighed. It was what his mate wanted. Gingerly, he lowered his feet into the cool water and sighed in surprised relief. It did feel good. Slipping in fully, cool water caressed his entire body, soothed him, took the edge off his heat.

Fenris slipped in behind him and pulled him into his lap. "Better?" he asked.

"Yes," Anders said. "Thank you - I hadn't realised how much that could help." He rubbed back against Fenris, pleased to feel his alpha's hard cock pressed against his back. He might be resisting, but Fenris wanted him. "I still need you," he said, turning his head to meet Fenris's eyes.

"Then you may have me," Fenris said. "Just not my cock."

"You don't have to knot me, just..."

"Mage - Anders, no," Fenris said. "Perhaps I could stop before it formed - pull out, or ensure it formed on the outside - but perhaps not."

"With the other omegas - you said-"

Fenris kissed Anders's head through his hair. "With the other omegas there was not this connection. I did not know them; I was put to them, and then ejected. I did not see them through several sessions, I had not had the experience of knotting them before, I had not made them a den and had it accepted. This is something more," Fenris said, his voice so close to Anders' ear he could feel the breath. The intensity of Fenris's words sent a shiver through him.

His alpha thought of this as something more. His alpha felt a connection. Anders tried to squash down the feeling of hope - the idiotic nonsense of wanting to bond with Fenris that had played on his mind before. Nonetheless, it was erotic - a thrill.

"A connection," Anders said.

"Yes, mage," Fenris said, his face pressed into Anders' hair. "Do you feel it?"

"Yes," Anders whispered. "But please, I need you. Help me."

"I will," Fenris said, and Anders felt one strong arm snake around his waist, while the other lifted him up and slipped fingers between his cheeks. The water had not washed away the lubication of his slick, and Fenris's fingers slipped in easily as he pulled Anders back against him and began working at his cock, too.

"Mmm," Anders groaned. Two fingers slipped inside him, and then three - he was already so loose! "Please, more," he whispered, his voice breathy and high. "All of them - stretch me wide. You could - could put your whole hand up there - fill me with your hand as you would with your knot!"

"My dirty-mouthed omega," Fenris's rich voice rolled in his ears as he stroked him inside. "I'm not going to do that. We've never discussed that."

"I don't care, I don't care," Anders said, grinding back against Fenris's fingers.

"Tough," the elf said, and then he pressed down on that hot spot inside at the same time as stroking firmly up on Anders' cock and Anders cried out - all thought of anything else forgotten.

Fenris bit down on the flesh of his shoulder - away from the scent gland - and Anders cried out again. Such white-hot pleasure.

The fingers inside him moved faster and firmer. Not teasing - picking up the pace to bring him off, and Anders rose on the wave.

"Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," he said over and over again, no longer caring that Fenris was fucking him with his fingers and not with his cock.

The pressure built inside until Anders' words were reduced to moans and Fenris's pace slowed, rubbing in long, slow strokes along his cock just as his fingers pressed down on that space inside, and finally, Anders came.

"Ah!" he cried out, then collapsed back against Fenris, aware of the cool water around him again, soothing and seeping the heat away. "I thought..." he said. "I thought for a moment that I was going to make this water boil with heat." He panted. "Oh, Maker!"

Fenris kissed his head through his hair again. "Do you feel better?" he asked.

Anders turned to face him properly for the first time since slipping into the pool. "A bit," he admitted. "I'm too tired to go again right now, but I think there's still an itch there to be scratched. And I know," he said looking down at Fenris's hard and neglected cock, "that you need some attention - I'm not going to neglect you again."

"Hmm," Fenris said, "Perhaps. But first, you will eat, and you will drink."

He pulled over a tray of food Anders had not even noticed in his desperation to be fucked. It was full of fruits and bread and cheese and all of it looked mouth-wateringly good. Fenris poured Anders a drink from a pewter jug, and when he passed it over, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was apple juice. Anders drank greedily, emptying the glass in seconds - unaware of how thirsty he had been until the crisp cool juice hit his tongue.

Fenris took the cup off him and passed him a slice of bread and a hunk of cheese, before going to pour him another glass.

"You take such good care of me," Anders said, smiling.

"I try," Fenris said back, a rare smile gracing his face, making the man look younger and happier than Anders had ever seen him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders looks after Fenris for a change.

As Anders recovered from the worst of his heat, Fenris fed him and made sure he drank his fill.

He wasn't sure he'd ever felt so much the centre of anyone's attention before. Even with Karl, their trysts had been fleeting, hurried adventures. Despite the pressure of the heat, things didn't feel so frantic anymore. Fenris had found a safe place for them, built him a den... was feeding him fruit.

He couldn't help but notice the tiredness around Fenris's eyes, but he was smiling and happy, and that sweet little smile brought such a change to the man's face.

Fenris enjoyed caring for him. Was relaxed in his company. It was so novel. The intensity and rage and that had been the background noise of all their previous encounters had melted away to leave someone caring and vulnerable behind.

Anders caught Fenris's hand as he went to pass over another slice of bread.

"Enough," he said. "I want to take care of you now."

The smile stilled on Fenris's face, the slightest line appearing in his brow to show his concern. "Are you sure?"

"Very," Anders said. "I told you - I'm not going to neglect you this time."

"But... you are not sated yourself," Fenris said. "Before, when I did not knot you..."

"That was different." Anders lifted the tips of Fenris's fingers to his lips and kissed them. "It was all still very new and... and you've done so much for me. Let me take care of you," he said, "Please."

Fenris gave the slightest nod, seeming to hold his breath. "Alright," he said, barely above a whisper.

Anders smiled and pushed back the plate of food, before tapping the tiled floor at the edge of the bath. "Then get up here."

Fenris raised his eyebrows, but obediently levered himself up out of the water, sitting down again with his thighs near Anders' head.

The sheen of water running off those firm thighs was unbelievably arousing. Anders kissed the closest one, moaning into Fenris's muscled flesh, pleased to hear the elf's light chuckle in response.

Anders pulled apart those strong thighs and gazed on Fenris's semi-erect cock. He bent forward and kissed its tip, smiling as it twitched.

Anders wasn't always disposed to call a cock beautiful, for all he loved the feel of one inside, but this one was. The swirling lines of lyrium made it seem elegant - even pretty. He felt Justice's interest rise, too, although as a distant thing - buried under the primal desire to mate and please his mate.

He ran his tongue along that length and heard Fenris's gasped intake of breath. Fenris was not given to loud moans, but the noises he did make were expressive. Anders wanted to wring as many of them from him as he could.

Taking the head of Fenris's cock in his mouth, Anders sucked, then brought one hand up to slowly manipulate the man's balls while the other ran teasingly over the small ring of flesh near the base of Fenris's cock that would become his knot.

Fenris made a low moan deep in his throat and Anders pushed forward, slowly taking more of Fenris into his mouth.

A hand came to rest in his hair, and Anders smiled around the hot, firm flesh in his mouth. He pulled back, tongue trailing along the underside of Fenris's cock as he did. Fenris's hissed exhale spoke to his enjoyment.

He pushed back down, taking more of Fenris inside him, now, enjoying the tingle of lyrium on his tongue. He sucked again and Fenris's fingers clenched in his hair.

Anders pulled back up, and then further down again, moving slowly, finding a leisurely rhythm that seemed right for the moment - treating Fenris to long, slow attention, not demanding too much from him in his wearied state.

He bobbed up and down again, rolling Fenris's balls in his hands, and finally took Fenris deep into his throat, pleased to hear the man gasp as he swallowed around his cock, his nose now buried in fine white pubes, his lips resting against the raised bump that was the beginning of Fenris's knot.

As he pulled back, Anders could hear Fenris breathing hard. His musk was strong in the air, surrounding Anders with an impression of his mate's prowess, strength, attractiveness. The unconsciously released pheromones would almost be laughable in their cliche of alpha posturing if they weren't so. Damn. Arousing.

Anders' own cock was getting hard again, just from knowing how well he was pleasing his mate and the pervading odor of what a strong and powerful mate that was.

He shifted to reach behind Fenris with one hand, sinking his fingers into his firm arse, then plunged back down along the man's cock, relishing the musky intensity of his scent as Anders' nose pressed into his pubic hair. The feeling of having so much of Fenris's solid cock inside him. Fenris's fingers now pressing down on his head, urging him on.

He swallowed and squeezed gently on Fenris's balls and heard the man moan.

Anders could sense the restraint Fenris was holding onto - the slight tremble in the man's hand that said he wanted to take control and fuck himself down Anders' throat, but was holding back. Anders relished the fantasy for a moment, but then pressed on. His lover was being so careful, and Anders would reward him.

He picked up the pace, bobbing back and forth, sucking deeply when Fenris was buried fully inside him, then running his tongue up the vein underneath as he pulled back.

Fenris was panting now, letting out small noises that spoke to his excitement.

Anders could feel the knot beginning to swell a little larger every time his lips lowered to its surface and it began to feel like the end of every deep-throat was an all-encompassing kiss.

Fenris began to moan, low, but throaty. "It... it..." he gasped. "I'm close. I'm so close, Anders, I..."

He could pull back, probably he should pull back - finish Fenris off by hand and let the powerful ejaculation of an alpha tending a heat go free into the water - but he just could not. He needed to see this through.

Though he no longer took Fenris fully into his throat, he wrapped his hand with gentle, teasing pressure about Fenris's growing knot as he bobbed back and forth and heard Fenris whimper - he bent forward over Anders and cried out.

Come hit the back of Anders throat and he resisted the urge to gag, swallowing as much as he could while Fenris gasped above him.

Anders pulled back when he couldn't take anymore and pulled Fenris down into the pool, his spend pumping out into the water. The touch of the water could not equal the ripe warm arse of an omega in heat, but Anders hoped it would help.

Fenris panted against him as his hips stuttered and jerked, his eyes wide as his orgasm took over, and Anders held him.

Anders hadn't been sure if it would last as long as it did for a knotting, without the presence of his body surrounding Fenris to trigger it, but Fenris seemed quite overwhelmed. Making only small noises for several minutes and continuing to pump out spend into the water.

Eventually, he recovered enough to speak. "Oh... oh Anders," he said. "I don't think... I don't think you should have pressed down like that on my knot. We might be here a while."

"Sorry," Anders said, kissing Fenris's forehead and holding him close. "I just thought you might enjoy it."

Fenris chuckled. "Oh... I did. I just... oh Maker!" He clutched against Anders, seeming breathless with pleasure and amusement.

Anders smiled. "My poor boy," he said. "Having the kind of extended orgasm only an alpha can have. Must be so tough."

Fenris slapped his shoulder, but with little force.

Anders had half-hoped that afterwards Fenris would be willing to see to him again, but he could see now that this was quite taking it out of the man, and by the time he'd recovered Anders' heat would likely have cooled again. But that was fine. It felt good to look after Fenris for a change.

Finally, Fenris groaned against him and his hips stuttered in the water with the last of his come. Limp in Anders' arms, he sighed deeply.

"Do you think, I will remain knotted?" he asked.

Anders kissed him lightly on the ear. "Probably for a little while. But I think without the pressure of a body around you it's likely not going to last as long as a proper knotting. Come on," he said. "Lets get you out of this water. You've filled it with spunk."

"Not all mine," Fenris said, into Anders' shoulder.

Anders snorted. "Quite a lot of it, though."

Looping his arms underneath Fenris, it was his turn to carry the elf this time. Fenris's solidly muscled body was heavier than it looked, but still lighter than the average human man, and Anders just about managed to get him from the bathroom to the bedroom - whereupon Fenris refused to be put down on the bed.

"I am _wet_ , mage," he complained. "The sheets are new! There are towels in the bathroom."

Laughing, Anders went to fetch the towels, which also looked new - fluffy and white and large - and wondered again just how much Fenris had spent on this.

He wrapped one of the giant towels about Fenris where he sat and pulled the man into his embrace, leaning back into the pile of cushions that littered the floor.

"How about we just rest here for a while, then?" Anders asked, and felt Fenris nod in his arms.

Anders pulled the other towel over them both and moved a few of the cushions around until he was comfortable, then finally stilled.

When he brushed back the hair from Fenris's face he found the man's eyes closed and his breathing slow and even. Though his cock was still hard between his legs, Fenris had fallen asleep.

"My poor, tired mate," Anders whispered, and pulled Fenris gently into his arms, before closing his own eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders tells Fenris about his probable infertility and tries to get Fenris to tell him whether he wants kids. Fenris questions him about the same. Feels are had.

Fenris woke to find Anders' arms around him, naked, the towel having fallen from him as he slept.

He turned to face him and the mage stirred, but didn't wake.

In the stillness of the moment, Fenris could look at Anders in a way he'd never had the time or inclination to do before. Golden hair hung unevenly about his face. He had untied it to sleep at Hawke's and then never retied it.

With his eyes closed, Fenris could see that the tips of Anders' lashes were blonde, though they were dark at the base. There were no freckles across his cheeks, but a small scattering of them dotted his shoulders, and something about that pleased Fenris.

Anders' brow was smoothed by sleep, but two thin lines persisted, marking how often the man frowned. Had he always been like that? Or was it the influence of the spirit? Isabela had commented on how much the mage had changed, but everyone changed as they aged, and really, despite the sexual intimacy Isabela alluded to, Fenris suspected they had not known each other very well, or for very long.

His eyes travelled down Anders' body, to the smooth planes of his chest. There was a decent firmness of muscle. More than Danarius had ever had - or would have wanted to. He prided himself on the power of his magic and his wealth to achieve more than one could by mere physical means. And on owning slaves like Fenris, who could fight his battles when needed.

Anders was not like that. He hadn't wanted to feel babied. To feel owned. Though it was intriguing that he said otherwise in the throws of passion. Fenris remembered Anders' confession that he had been taken against his will by Templars, and his curious smile froze. So. He did not want to be treated like that. But perhaps he associated it with sex. Or perhaps it was something to do with the heat. The impulse to submit and offer oneself up must sit strangely with someone who was otherwise so fiercely independent.

Fenris doubled his resolve not to do with Anders anything that they had not previously agreed before his heat rose.

Looking further down the man's body, Fenris's eyes settled on his stomach.

They had mated fully only twice, but everything about a heat was designed to help the seed take. There was a chance...

Fenris ran fingers lightly down Anders' torso, and the skin of Anders' belly twitched away from his touch. Anders grunted.

"Don't get your hopes up," he said, with a sleep-croaked voice. "There's a very good chance I'm completely infertile."

Fenris frowned. "Because of the suppressants, you mean," he said.

"Partly..."

"I've been thinking about that," Fenris went on. "Hawke's father believed himself to be a beta, but he still fathered three children. Perhaps he was a beta - a very lucky one. Or perhaps he was an alpha who only came partially into his presentation, because of the drugs. In either case, he fathered three healthy children. Perhaps, once the effects of the drugs have cleared your system..."

Anders sighed. "It isn't just that, Fenris. I'm a Grey Warden. Even ordinary alphas and omegas have very low fertility amongst the Wardens, due to the taint - what we drink at our joining. It changes us. It can still happen - I think the Commander said her friend Alistair fathered a child during the Blight, but I had the impression that was very special circumstances. Anyway. Even if I hadn't been pumped full of drugs since I was twelve, I probably wouldn't be able to conceive." The mage rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry," Fenris said. "I didn't mean to distress you."

Anders shook his head. "You didn't," he said, quietly.

They lay in silence for some moments, looking up through the broken ceiling at a blue sky, whisped with clouds. It must be afternoon by now. They should eat something.

"Do you want children?" Anders surprised him by asking.

Fenris thought. He was relatively sure he already had children in Tevinter, from having been bred, but he would never know them. He couldn't remember ever having considered raising a child as normal people did. It had never been a possibility when he was a slave, and after his escape, his focus had been on Danarius. The idea of building a life - any kind of life - as a free man, was daunting.

"I don't know," he said, at last. "I likely fathered several in Tevinter, though I'll never see them. I suppose, in as much as there is a physical need, it has been fulfilled."

Anders rolled to face him, leaning up on his elbow. "But do you _want_ them?" There was an earnestness in the mage's eyes that was a little unsettling. The answer was important to him.

"I... I don't know," Fenris repeated, taking Anders' free hand when he looked away. "Anders, I don't want to lie to you. It is something... something I never considered. Something I never thought would be possible."

Anders laughed, but it was a sad sound. "I suppose I know what that's like."

"Do you?" Fenris asked.

The look Anders gave him was pained, his eyes glassy. "I can't. So." He closed his eyes and tears rolled down his cheeks. Anders reclaimed his hand to brush them away.

The mage did want children. Or at least, part of him did.

"There, uh, there are a lot of things I thought were over when I joined with Justice. Love was one," the mage said, not meeting Fenris's eyes. "But so what? Love was never really real in the Circle anyway. But if I could free other people and they could love... live lives..." More tears, and Anders brushed these away, too. "I'd never experienced anything like... this heat." His reddened eyes briefly met Fenris's, then skirted away again. "And children... once I got my magic I was shipped off to the circle and I thought that was it."

He sniffed, then went on more quietly. "It would probably be unwise for me to have children, even if I could. My life is... far too dangerous. And Justice would call it a distraction. You can't... raise a child and try to change the world."

Some small part of Fenris found himself agreeing. How could Anders possibly bring a child safely to term, let alone raise one, with the kind of life he led? What would it do to a baby to grow inside the body of someone who was possessed? The thought make his skin prickle. And yet, there was such sadness in Anders' voice. _He does want children_ , Fenris realised, _whether he recognises it or not_.

"If you did not know," Fenris said, carefully, "That this was a possibility when you joined with Justice, then it would be unfair for him to prevent you from doing that now that things are different for you."

Anders shook his head, but said nothing for several minutes. Fenris was about to propose that they dress and find lunch when the mage spoke again. "It's silly to even think about it now. Nothing's changed. I'm still almost certainly infertile. I just..." Anders gave him an odd look - eyes flitting to his and then away again. "Could you bond with someone, if you knew they couldn't conceive?"

Fenris stared at him. How was he supposed to answer such a question? "Mage, I-"

"I mean, in general," he said. "Is it something... Will no one want to bond with me, when they find out?"

"I don't know," Fenris said. Did the mage want something more? Surely not. Was he thinking of someone else? Irrational jealousy arose, and Fenris pushed it away. "I think it would depend on the person. Not everyone wants children. There is much to be desired in bonding that has nothing to do with that."

"That's the purpose of it, though, isn't it?" Anders said, looking at the floor again. "To make sure any children have two parents who love each other."

Fenris shook his head. "I don't think it's just about breeding." He took Anders hand again, squeezing it to make the mage look up. "I have been bred several times. I didn't even knot my partners. I think it is probably good - for children - for their parents to be bonded, but it isn't necessary. And by turn, I don't think children are necessary for bonding, either."

"Right," Anders said, though he did not look convinced.

"Come," Fenris said. "It has been some hours since we last ate, and we should both have some water."

Fenris could sense that these questions were still whirling in the mage's mind, but Anders allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and led away.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders and Fenris have breakfast, and Anders raises another concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I refuse to be specific about Anders' age. I don't think canon is consistent and I'm not sure if I agree with the fanon estimates I have seen ;-p
> 
> Sorry, no sex in this bit. I wanted at least a bit more groping, but my boys wanted to talk. Next time Fenris will have a pleasant surprise for Anders.

Breakfast was a companionable, cooperative affair.

Fenris stoked the stove and found them eggs to fry up and slightly stale bread to toast. He took charge of the toast while Anders fried the eggs.

 _I have eggs_ , Anders reflected, as he turned one chicken egg over with a spatula. _Are they unfertilised like these?_ he wondered. _Or is there a chance..._

But no. It was silly to fixate on his fertility like this. He had accepted that he likely couldn't breed long ago - before he had even joined the Wardens. The fact that he had eggs that likely were infertile in addition to his impotent sperm didn't change very much.

Except...

He stole a glance at Fenris as the elf turned over the slices of bread he was toasting.

He looked happy - like he was enjoying this brief interlude of a relationship, even if they might return to their normal bickering selves afterwards.

Anders caught his eye as Fenris looked up, and smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing," Anders said. Held held out his hand, and when Fenris took it, pulled him closer. He bent his head down and smelled Fenris's hair. Clean and with just a hint of earthy alpha musk. "I like this," he said, running his lips along Fenris's ear, and smiling again when the elf shivered.

"I like this too," Fenris replied, and looked up to press his lips against Ander's jaw. "I like your strange, human stubble," he admitted, making Anders laugh.

"That's what you like about me, is it?"

Fenris shrugged, then pulled away. "Don't burn the eggs," he reminded Anders, then bent to check on the bread.

The food tasted good, and Anders found he was ravenous. He finished his plate quickly, using the toast to soak up every bit of egg yolk that spilled out across his plate.

Fenris was still eating his, but got up to set more bread to toast.

Anders caught his arm as he moved towards the remaining eggs. "Hey, sit down for a minute, I want to talk."

"You need to eat," Fenris said, with a seriousness that made Anders wonder if he was being teased.

"OK," he said, "But I need to talk, too." He pulled Fenris down beside him on the bench, resisting the urge to pull him further and into his lap. He settled for holding on to Fenris's hand. "You've been very generous," he said. "And I've liked it - all the inventive ways you've found to take care of me. But next time, I want all of you."

His free hand reached boldly down into Fenris's lap, moving firmly up his well-muscled thigh until it was pressing on his cock.

Fenris lifted his hand away and set it aside.

"No."

The rejection was deflating. Not as much as it might have been. He knew enough now to trust that Fenris would take care of him anyway, but...

"I won't hurt you this time. I promise. I want it."

Fenris looked up earnestly into his eyes. "I don't doubt that you mean that now, but it isn't safe - for either of us. I don't think we should do that again this heat."

The barest hint that Fenris might be willing to consider laying with him for other, future heats offered hope, but...

"What if there aren't any other heats?" he asked, voicing a fear he'd been trying to avoid. "What if this is the only one? I'm broken, Fenris - in more ways than one. What they did to me in the Circle, the Grey Warden taint... maybe even Justice. I'm not normal. You know that. And I'm not getting any younger."

Fenris looked sceptical. "You're not _that_ old."

"Maybe not," Anders said, looking down. "But this is, what, fifteen years after I should have had my first heat? Maybe more? That's... not a good sign."

The silence hung between them, seeming to confirm his fears.

"Malcolm Hawke fathered three healthy children," Fenris said at last, holding Anders' hand in both of his, now.

"But he never thought of himself as an alpha. He told Bethany that all mages were beta's. Surely if everything was as it should have been, he would have known."

"Maybe, maybe not. The mind is a powerful thing - if he thought he was a beta, perhaps he ignored other signs. We know things have changed for you - physically. The... fluids, if nothing else..."

Justice, still distant under the primal urges that had taken over Anders these last few days, seemed to stir in agreement.  _He is right. Your body has changed. I can feel it. You can examine yourself and know this_. Anders swallowed. "But I... there's more wrong with me than that," he said - to Justice as well as to Fenris.

Fenris put a hand against Anders' neck and he looked up into earnest green eyes. "This will not be your only heat, mage. There will be other times."

Anders looked down again, not able to hold those eyes as he asked: "Will they be with you?"

Fenris bent forward and met Anders' lips in a kiss. It was soft and tender and full of promise that Anders didn't quite dare believe.

"I don't know," Fenris answered after pulling back. "I don't think either of us can know that. We are not ourselves, and I think you will want to think properly on this when you are."

Anders made a disappointed sound that was almost a whine.

"I will still take care of you, mage - believe me - but I can't knot you again. Not for this heat. You are too..." _Fragile. Weak._ "...it is too soon after learning this. There is too much for you to think on and not enough time for you to consider. I cannot in good conscience tie you to me right now. And... I am sorry, but for my sake, too, I will not. Both times I knotted you you tried to pull away after the heat died back. It is not good for either of us."

Anders hunched his shoulders in. Fenris was right, he was being selfish, but...

"I _will_ take care of you, mage," Fenris told him again. "Believe me. I still have a few tricks to play yet."

Anders snorted. "Somehow I never pictured you as one for inventive sex. I suppose you have surprised me."

"You have no idea," Fenris replied, his rich and rolling voice adding an extra layer of suggestion.

Fenris's expression shifted to a frown and he sniffed the air, then his eyes widened. "The toast!" he exclaimed, and turned round.

Anders laughed to see the two charred and brittle oblongs Fenris pulled out from under his grill. And then again at the forlorn look on Fenris's face. But after a moment he schooled his features and straightened. "Nevermind," he said, standing to tip the burnt bread into the rubbish pail. "I can make more." He met Anders's eyes. "There will be another time. Just let me take care of you as you need for now."

Sighing out his disappointment, Anders nodded. "Alright," he said. "I trust you."


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fenris accidentally pulls Anders back into his heat and helps him through it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one, but very smutty.

After eating, they returned to the den Fenris had made and lay on his bed together. Fenris was spooning Anders, running a hand appreciatively up and down his side. He felt... contented, loved, protected. It was... unfamiliar, but good.

He reached tentatively towards Justice. The spirit was oddly distant, but they could never be truly separate anymore. He felt both Justice's anxiety about how much time this heat was taking - time that could have been put to better use - and his gladness that Anders had found some kind of peace. That he had  got something back that had been taken from him by the Templars. Enjoying this heat was, in a way, a victory, and the spirit did not want to take that from him.

So, doubly protected, then. He smiled, caught Fenris's hand, and kissed it.

"I don't think it's morning, you know," he said, looking at the light that fell through the holes in Fenris's ceiling. "It felt natural to make breakfast - we'd just woken up, again, but I think it might be afternoon. I've completely lost track of time."

"It doesn't matter," Fenris said, kissing his neck. "You want breakfast, we eat breakfast. You want to sleep? We sleep."

Anders rolled over to look at him. "You knew it wasn't morning," he said.

Fenris shrugged. "I may have." He kissed him on the lips this time, and Anders opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, enjoying the warm dampness of the man's tongue, and the answering throb in his cock that might develop into a stiffness.

"Well," said Anders, when he pulled back. "It was you who feel asleep last time. Your cock was still hard. I was kind of impressed."

Fenris smiled and reached a hand between Anders' legs to press down on his slowly hardening length. "Were you?"

"Mmm," Anders murmured.

A hot flush rushed over him as his cock got hard and he gasped, suddenly very, very aware of how close Fenris was - pressing his cock into the palm of Fenris's hand. "Oh _fuck_ \- I think you pulled my heat back up." He bit his lip and moaned again, revelling in sensation as Fenris continued to rub slowly against him. "Oh shit, shit, shit - I always wondered how people could tell it wasn't just the heat rising of it's own accord, but... fuck!" He pressed more ardently against Fenris and pulled him into another kiss.

The throbbing had spread to his arse and he could feel moistness leaking out. He broke the kiss to swear again: "Fuck, fuck, fuck - please fuck me Fenris. Please. Ah!" No, Fenris had promised not to do that - it seemed a sinful cruelty in the light if Anders' present and pressing need. "If you're not going to fuck me with your cock," he gasped, "Then bring out whatever tricks you said you had left, because I need it. _Now._ "

Fenris kissed his forehead, then rolled away, making Anders groan.

"Please."

"I won't be a moment - don't worry. I think you will like this."

"Fuck," Anders swore, reaching a hand between his legs himself and rubbing at the rim of his slippery hole. It felt good, but not enough. He was pressing two fingers hungrily inside at once when Fenris pushed him onto his back and batted his hands away.

"You don't need to do that, mage," he said. "I promised to take care of you, and I will."

Strong hands bent his legs at the knee and pushed them out to create space, and then Fenris's fingers were at his hole, sliding in and out, gently tugging him open.

He pressed down on Fenris's hand, yearning to be filled. At some point he closed his eyes - his whole attention focused on his entrance and how much he needed Fenris inside him.

"Shh, sh," Fenris shushed him. "You're ready - I just wanted to make sure." He was still loose and flexible from their frequent love-making over the last few days, so it hadn't take much to prepare him, but he still whined when Fenris's fingers moved away.

Fortunately, it wasn't long until he felt something else there - something cool and hard and solid. Not Fenris's cock, but... "What is that?"

"Something to take care of you with," Fenris said, as he slid the dildo further in, making Anders collapse back against the pillows at the delicious ache and stretch of something sliding inside him, filling him up.

"Ah!" he cried out.

"Is it good?"

"Yes, yes!" It was better than good, it was amazing. Not as good as his mate's cock would have been - it didn't have the warmth and sense of connection. But there was something appealing about feeling that solid and unyielding length inside him, ploughing into him, claiming him. "Mmm," he moaned.

Something pushed against the edge of his rim. "It has a... knot, I suppose. Not as wide as a real knot would be at its fullest - it should be possible to pull it out if you need to. Do you want that, too?"

"Oh, fuck - yes!"

Anders gripped the covers as he felt the wider part of the dildo press against his rim - felt the stretch so good. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Finally the bulb of the knot slipped inside him - it was both a relief and a wonderful sensation of fullness. Fenris pressed it upwards at just the right angle and Anders was lost to white hot pleasure.

"I'm going to pull it out now, to - to build up a rhythm," Fenris said, starting to sound breathy. "Is that alright?"

"Yes!" he cried. "Yes. Please."

Fenris pulled out slowly, the stretch and ache so good and so tight. Anders couldn't speak - couldn't do anything for the incredible aching pleasure except lay with his legs spread, clutching at the bed sheets.

The knot popping out of him was a loss, but the motion of the dildo moving inside him was delicious, and soon enough the artificial cock was driving into him again, grazing the hot point inside with sharp pleasure, leaving Anders only capable of making inarticulate cries.

And then it was stretching him wide as the knot passed through his ring again. A little easier this time, but not by much. Fenris's rhythm was slow but sure - careful enough not to hurt, but regular enough to match Anders' building need. He might have wished that it was Fenris's cock and not a tool in his hand, but it was still good - so very good.

And when finally he could feel the pressure building inside so that he couldn't take it anymore, Anders grabbed Fenris's hand on the in-stroke and held it fast.

"Ah!" he cried out as he came, splattering both of them with his come, but too far gone to care. The hard length inside pressing on his prostate as he came intensified and prolonged his orgasm, his muscles clenching around it in waves even after his come was spent.

As he came back to himself, he realised that Fenris was gasping above him, taking his own cock in hand. "You are so beautiful," he said, "Coming undone like that - coming..." He pressed his lips together to bite back a moan as he pumped at his cock with frenzied desparation, until Fenris finally came, too, and collapsed beside him on the bed.

Anders rolled closer to the panting elf and kissed his cheek. Glancing down, he could see that this had not been the full-throttle, all-encompassing orgasm of an alpha locked inside an omega. His knot had not swelled, which was probably good, considering how much that took out of him.

But Anders could still feel the dildo hard inside his arse, its fake knot pressing at the inside of his entrance. As satisfying as a real knot? No. He could feel that it wasn't as large as Fenris's had been, and it didn't provide the same feeling of locked-togetherness - of oneness with one's mate - that had been so fulfilling. But it was good. He clenched down on it and moaned at the thrill of sensation with which his body responded.

"Are - are you still fucking yourself with that thing?" Fenris asked, sounding tired and incredulous.

"Only a little," Anders replied, grinning.

Fenris rolled his eyes. "You like it, then?"

"Yes," Anders nodded, stroking a hand through Fenris's hair. "It helps, thank you." Anders scooched closer on the bed, feeling the dildo moving inside him, and pulled Fenris intro his arms. "And it means I can do this," he said. "I'd rather have you inside me," he whispered. "But in other ways this is less awkward." He pressed his lips to Fenris's in a long and lazy kiss.

"Thank you," he murmured, when he pulled back.

"Do you want me to take it out?" Fenris asked, his eyes adorably earnest.

Anders shook his head. "No. It's not as good as having you come inside me, but... still feeling like I'm full - I think it's helping."

Fenris smiled. "I'm glad."


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders and Fenris share an intimate moment in the bath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little bit of fluff for New Year's Eve.

Anders had fancied the idea of keeping the hard length of the knotted toy inside him until his heat rose again the next time, but eventually the heat tailed off and he was forced to admit that it was a little awkward. Plus, he was starting to feel a bit sticky and encrusted.

He had worked the toy out of himself and rinsed it out in the sink while Fenris cleaned the bath from their earlier session and ran it again.

This time they washed each other properly.

Slowly. With care, with affection.

It made Anders smile to see Fenris's fine white hair plastered to his skull, long ears poking up starkly from the sides of his head. But he had relented and kissed those ears gently all along their lengths when Fenris had looked hurt.

 _I love you_ , he found himself thinking, but forced himself not to voice.

He knew this for what it was. Fenris was right. It was an illusion. It was the elation and surprise of having someone take care of him - treat him gently - mixed with the desires of the heat and the heady sense of connection that it created.

So instead, he held Fenris close and looked into his eyes and said: "I like seeing you like this. Without your armour."

"Vulnerable."

"Yes," he confirmed. "Does that bother you?"

Fenris looked away, thinking. Then nodded. "A little."

"That's not how I mean it. I don't want to hurt you."

"I know that."

"Do you?"

Green eyes, turning back to meet his. "Yes," he said, and then moved closer - his hands moving under the water to pull Anders against him. "Yes." He said again. "But I'm not used to it."

"Hmm." Anders nodded. "I feel the same."

"You feel vulnerable," Fenris said.

"For different reasons, maybe." He pulled back so that he could look at the other man more easily, and so that Fenris could see him. "I don't mind being naked. I don't need armour."

"Because you are a mage."

He shrugged. "Maybe. But also because I like sex. And I like my body." He reached out to run a hand down the column of Fenris's neck, along the slop of his shoulders, curving back across to appreciatively caress the solid plains of his chest. "And I like yours. I think," he frowned. "Maybe I'm wrong, but... he didn't just make you his slave. He made you a fighter. A weapon. Most people, they put on armour only when they're in danger. When Hawke goes home, she takes off hers. But you - you don't."

"Except when I'm in bed."

Anders smiled, but felt the sadness in that remark. "That too. Does it... does it feel like you wish you could be armoured then?"

Fenris's face was closed off now, but eventually, he nodded.

"It must be reassuring," Anders said. "To be the one in control, now."

Fenris frowned. "Anders, I... I have tried to give _you_ control. I've wanted everything we do-"

"That's not what I meant. You've tried..." he sighed, wondering how to express it. "You've tried to give me consent - and I appreciate that, I do. But you also wanted to take care of me. To do things for me. That's a kind of control, too."

Now he could see the emotion in Fenris's face, and it was one of sadness. "Anders, I... that's not what I wanted."

"It's OK," Anders said, pulling him close in the water again. "I like having someone take care of me." He kissed Fenris's cheek. "There aren't many people who have done that. My mother, I think, although I don't really remember. And the Warden Commander," strong and confusing emotions arose even thinking of that. "Maker - I would have done anything for her. But she was just being... kind. Her heart belonged to someone else. And eventually she left. Apart from that, there's really only been Justice."

Fenris looked sceptical. "If he is taking care of you, it looks an awful lot like putting you in danger. Your life - the things you do - they're hardly _safe_."

Anders laughed. "No, I suppose not. But he protects me when it matters. And he believes in me. He believes I can make a difference. Make things different - for other people. That I can exist for... more than just myself. Having someone believe in you - that can be a heady experience, when you've been told all your life that you're worthless. That you should try to extinguish all the things that make you unique."

Fenris looked as though he was going to say something else, but then closed his mouth and shook his head.

 _He doesn't want to argue with me_ , Anders thought.

"That's not what I was trying to say, though," he said. "What I meant was... this is... special. This... being cared for. By you. And I hope that it's helping you, too. So you can be vulnerable with me, but still have a kind of control."

Fenris looked thoughtful at that. He reached out of the water and pushed a strand of wet hair back from Anders' forehead. "It is," he said.

"Good," replied Anders, and leant in to kiss him, enjoying again that sense of physical intimacy and closeness that he'd not so long ago thought was a thing put behind him, and into the past.

 _I love you_ , he let himself think again. _Even if it's just for now_.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders notices that the intervals between his heat rising are getting longer. They have dinner and talk. When his heat rises again, Fenris takes good care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut, smut, smutty mc-smut.

"They're getting father apart, aren't they?" Anders murmured as Fenris toweled him off after their bath.

"Hmm?" Fenris said, his arms wrapped around Anders from behind, rubbing a soft cloth teasingly over his nipples.

"I mean, you pulled that last one early, but, but before that... we've had time to sleep, eat... It looks like it's getting on for evening, now."

Lips pressed against his neck, making him shiver.

"Does that bother you?"

The vibration of Fenris's deep voice so close to his ear made his hair stand on end.

Anders looked over his shoulder at Fenris. "I don't want this to end," he said, turning in Fenris's arms and kissing him - treasuring the feeling of warm lips and comforting arms about him. "What if the next one is the last?" he asked, when the kiss parted.

Fenris moved his arms up to encricle Anders' neck. "Then you will become more yourself and have the time you need to think this through."

Anders closed his eyes, trying to will away the dread that rose at the thought. "I don't want to think this through. I don't want to think about any of that."

Pressure on his shoulders as Fenris leaned upward to kiss him again.

"Yesterday all you wanted was time to yourself and you didn't want anything to do with sex," he said. "I think you'll be grateful of it when the time comes."

Anders opened his eyes. "Was that only yesterday?"

Fenris grinned at him. "Come, let us dress. I will cook you dinner - perhaps a glass of wine?"

Anders smiled back. "Alright."

 

***

 

Dinner was pleasant. The meal was simple, but surprisingly good. And Fenris had a better kind of wine than Anders had drunk in many years. There were many gentle, light touches. Moments of reconnection. They avoided topics that were likely to cause conflict.

The light had faded outside before Anders felt the flush of heat again. He had his arms about Fenris - they were doing the dishes together and making a sloppy mess of it.

He paused as a thrill of sensation ran through him, pressing his nose into Fenris's hair and moaning.

"Time again?" Fenris asked.

"Mmm," he nodded, pulling Fenris's body closer against his.

He smelt so good. And it was nice to have an alpha who was smaller than him - that he could hold in his arms and just smell.

Fenris chuckled. "Are you just going to smell me this time?"

Anders smiled. "Maybe," he said, breathing in deeply through his nose, then rubbing his crotch slowly against Fenris's oh-so-wonderful hard and muscular arse.

"Frotting, then?" Fenris asked.

"Maybe," Anders said, breathy now, his cock hardening in his pants, revelling in the friction.

When Fenris pushed gently against his arms Anders whined in complaint, but allowed the man to pull away and turn to face him.

"Come, Anders," he said, leaning up into a brief kiss, then laughing and leaning back as Anders tried to make it longer. "I can do better for you than this."

Anders groaned. "Oh, no, but Fenris, I don't want to move, I just want to have you, right here... right here..."

He ran his teeth teasingly up Fenris's ear and was pleased to feel Fenris melt under the attention.

"That's cheating," Fenris said, his voice higher than usual and a little breathy now.

Anders put the tip of the ear fully in his mouth and sucked.

He was gratified by a moan from the elf and responded by pressing forward, his cock grinding against Fenris's hip bone as he backed into the counter.

"Mmmm, no," Fenris said, breaking away. "Come on. Or did you not want to feel something inside you this time?"

"Something..." Anders started, but then he remembered. The toy. "Oh."

"Come along," Fenris led him by the hand, and though his cock was stiff and it was awkward to walk, he followed willingly, repressing the urge to beg Fenris to put his own cock inside him again.

Upstairs, he was glad they had taken the time to clean themselves and the dildo. He set about undressing as quickly as possible as Fenris went to fetch it from the bathroom.

Feeling the air against his cock brought a fresh ache of yearning, and he became aware once more of a wetness and throbbing between his butt cheeks that said he was ready.

"Lie back on the bed," Fenris said as he returned, and Anders was only too happy to obey.

"Yes."

He scooched back and bent his legs at the knee to give Fenris an open view of his aching hard cock and ready hole.

Anders leaned up on his elbows to watch as Fenris knelt between his legs, laying the toy on the covers for a moment as he ran his hands down the sensitive skin of Anders' inner thighs and to his hole. Fenris's fingers pressed in quite easily from the frequent love-making, and he soon had two from one hand and one from the other inside - tugging Anders open, slipping deliciously inside.

"Fuck!" Anders cried, collapsing on the bed.

"Good?"

"Just get it in me," he said, slapping Fenris's firm thigh with impatience.

The fingers left him, and a shift in the bed marked Fenris picking up the toy shortly before Anders felt it pressed - cool and hard - against his hole.

He groaned with inarticulate longing as his felt it slide inside. "Mmmm - mmm - oh fuck. Oh fuck, fuck me. Fuck me Fenris."

Then he felt the large knot of the dildo pressed flush with him.

"Are you ready for this?"

"Yes - yes, please!"

And the large bulge began pressing against him - stretching him. He slapped the bed, gasping. Until finally the large, firm length of it was buried within him and locked inside.

Fenris gave a little tug on the end, as though to confirm that it was well stuck there, then stood up, his hands resting on Anders' knees.

"Don't - don't stop there!"

"I don't plan on it," Fenris said - smirking, Maker damn the man. "But first, sit up."

"I... what?"

"Sit up, mage. I want you to feel it move inside you."

Oh. Now Anders did, too.

He pushed up with his hands, lowering his legs, bending at the waist - all the myriad little movements tugging on the hard  column inside him, pressing against his guts, and the knot rubbing deliciously against that one sweet spot inside.

He was breathing hard now.

"Now, stand, mage."

"Fenris..."

"Stand. Trust me."

He stood, grunting at the ordinary movement that had now become awkward in a way that ached inside but was also good.

"Thank you," Fenris said, then sank to his knees before Anders. "Now, I can take care of you."

Taking the base of Anders cock in his hand, Fenris lowered his lips to the head and kissed it, making Anders gasp at the sensation.

Then he took the whole head in his mouth and swirled his tongue around.

Anders put his hand out to grasp the bedpost for balance, and the dildo shifted inside him again.

Then Fenris lowered his head further down Anders' cock and all Anders could do was make weak, whimpering noises.

He felt Fenris's fingers as they cupped and manipulated his balls, then trailed up his taint until they felt the end of the toy and tapped it

Fenris's head rose, and he sucked, and then it fell again, and this time his hand pressed on the end of the dildo, angling it up and in just as Fenris took him fully inside.

Anders had never imagined something like this - Fenris seemed to be caring for him from all angles - and it felt so. Fucking. Good.

But then Fenris pulled back and his mouth came off Anders' cock, his saliva making it cool in the air.

"I want you to have control in this, mage," he said. "Take control of me."

He reached up and took Anders's hand off the bedpost and bringing it down to his clean white hair.

"Fuck me."

 _Yes, oh Maker, yes_. He wanted to do that, but... Fenris needed control. Hated to be vulnerable.

"Will you be alright with that?"

"I am asking you to do it, mage. I want to give you pleasure. I want you to be in control of how I give you pleasure."

It was heady, that permission.

Gingerly, he put both his hands into Fenris's hair, trembling as they ran along his scalp and along the edges of his ears, thrilling to see Fenris close his eyes in response to the stimulation.

Then he pressed Fenris's lips back on the tip of his cock, giving them both a moment to prepare, before pushing Fenris down, plunging his cock inside the warm wet embrace of the elf's mouth.

He shifted his grip to more firmly take control. Fenris wanted this, and he wanted it too.

He pulled out slightly, then rocked his hips forward again - slowly, giving Fenris time to get used to the intrusion - pressing back as far as he could go until he felt the elf choking beneath him, then pulled back. He knew the limit now and would be guided by it.

Anders began to build a rhythm - pushing into and out of Fenris's mouth as he held him steady. Fucking him. Fucking his mouth. Using him,but with permission.

And every small movement of the muscles in his abdomen set the toy moving inside so that he was being fucked as well.

And Maker - it felt good - so very good!

He moaned as he pushed in and out of Fenris, who was now holding on to Anders with firm hands that pressed into the flesh of his arse and that felt good too.

Hot wet mouth all around him. Beautiful friction. Complete control as he use Fenris as _his_ toy now, even as the toy that Fenris had placed inside him moved inside. And the rhythm and the pressure was building - blood rushing to where he was hot and hard and aching so that he throbbed - in his arse, in his cock. And he pumped and pumped and pumped himself into Fenris's mouth until finally he could feel his climax upon him and tried to pull back.

But Fenris held him fast and he couldn't take it anymore - his orgasm came in a flood or release, which Fenris worked to swallow - his mouth still around him - until finally Anders was spent. His knees weak, he collapsed on the bed.

" _Fuck_ , Fenris. That... that..." he couldn't speak.

Fenris got up and sat down on the bed next to him. "Good?"

Anders laughed. "You know it was, you saucy cock."

Fenris grinned.

"I... I need to return the favour, but I..." he was exhausted.

"It's alright," Fenris said, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"No, but I..."

"It's fine, silly mage." He lay down beside him and pulled Anders into his embrace.

Anders had meant it. He wanted to return the favour, but truly he was spent.

"I love you," he whispered, hardly even aware that he had done so, into Fenris's chest.

"Silly mage," Fenris whispered back. "Just rest."


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anders and Fenris wake up to find that Anders' heat has faded in the night. Each must figure out how much has changed, and how much hasn't.

When Anders awoke next, it was to a true morning. They had slept the night through.

Fenris was asleep in his arms.

 _My alpha..._ he thought, almost experimentally, but... _No, not my alpha anymore_.

The differences were intangible, but present.

He definitely felt... closer to Fenris. He was sharing his bed. They had been intimate many times over the last two days. Fenris has taken great and very considerate care with him. Had, in fact, spent a lot of money on him, Anders realised as he looked around the newly refurbished room - the den that Fenris had made for him.

He was grateful to Fenris.

He had seen a new side of Fenris.

But the part of him that had wanted to bind himself to Fenris forever - that had begged to be allowed to submit, to be filled up with Fenris, to do nothing but lay in his arms and take joy in Fenris's body... that part was gone. Melted away. A pleasant memory with a somewhat confusing afterglow.

The elf looked softer in his sleep - hair mussed about his face. Vulnerable. He had made himself vulnerable to Anders. To a mage. When before Anders hadn't even been sure that they could count as friends.

And in that shared vulnerability and comfort, Anders had fancied he felt something like love.

Was there love now?

There was gratitude.

A little embarrassment. Nervousness about how things would change between them.

Attraction, yes. He could admit to himself now that Fenris was very attractive. Whether he was taking charge or offering to do all and only what Anders wanted. Anders had liked him in both those guises.

Curiosity. Yes. There was a part of him that wanted to see if there was now something between them to be explored.

Care. He cared about Fenris. He cared whether Fenris would wake up and return to his former disgust of the repugnant abomination.

 _I do not think he will do that_. Justice's voice. Louder than it had been for days.

They rarely talked in any kind of literal sense - for the most part they were of one mind. But sex had always been a very human part of Anders that Justice had never understood. They conversed in a way, sometimes, when they disagreed. Or when one of them struggled to understand something about the other. Much as any person might have an imagined argument in their own head.

 _You've come to a new understanding of the mortal heart, have you?_ Anders thought. _You were the one who was so very frustrated with his willful ignorance - his inability to see the injustice mages face_.

_I have always admired him for his commitment to his cause. Now he understands ours better._

Anders snorted. _If you say so_.

The movement made Fenris stir. He made a small noise that was cuter than anything that should be able to come out of such a stern beast.

No. Not a beast. He knew better than that, now. Didn't he?

_"I was... briefly put to stud, for slave omegas in heat. But forbidden to knot. They don't put you in at the same time as another alpha, but I think they put several alphas to the same omega, to ensure a litter... Perhaps it is another thing we should not speak of right now."_

Fenris had always seemed so impenetrable. Ignorant. Full of rage and a murderous wish to end freedom for mages and kill all those who refused to submit. But when Anders had been alone and vulnerable to him he had not simply given into his drives and taken what he wanted from him.

_"I - if you tell me now, I will... I will move back from you. Tell me. Is this what you want?"_

All Fenris had wanted to do was take care of him.

 _But he defended the Right of Tranquillity. While we were in bed together_.

He had. And that was a sticking point. Anders and Justice were as one on that.

 _He promised to think on it_.

He had. That was also true. But neither of them had had time to think on anything. Not with clear heads.

Fenris moved again under Anders hands, and this time he opened his eyes.

"Good morning," he said, his voice rough with sleep.

 

***

 

"Good morning," Anders said in return, looking down at Fenris over his shoulder.

Something was different, but in the first moments of waking, Fenris could not put his finger on what it was.

"Have you been awake long?" Fenris asked.

Anders shook his head. "Not long," he said. Then sighed. "But long enough, I suppose."

Fenris's mind caught up with what his senses were telling him. "Your heat - it's over isn't it?"

The smell that had been an intoxicating constant, even as it ebbed while the heat cooled, had now dissipated entirely. Instead of the warm and heady smells of _mate_ and _omega_ and eagerness, his bed sheets now mostly smelt of sweat and stale sex.

Anders nodded. "Yes."

He pushed himself up on the bed, so that he was sitting properly, looking down at Fenris. "I want to thank you. You've been... very considerate. All this..." he looked around, taking in the new sheets, the cushions, the blankets - the replaced canopy of the bed. "It's beyond anything I could have expected. You've done more than just see this through with me. I wouldn't have thought it, from you, given... everything. And I'm sorry for that."

Fenris forced himself to sit up, too. "You do not need to thank me, or to apologise. I told you: this is something I have long been denied as well. It was important to me - to take care of you."

"I suppose it's time to go," Anders said, wearily.

Fernis's heart sank. So soon? "Stay for breakfast, at least," Fenris offered, but Anders shook his head, sadly.

"Thank you, but... you were right. What you said last night. I need some time to be by myself. And I have left the clinic abandoned for days. There are people who need me."

Of course. That made sense. And yet... "Is..." Fenris flushed and felt his heart beat faster with unexpected nerves. "Is this the end of it, then?" He asked, surprised at the sudden surety he felt in himself that he did not want it to be.

Anders smiled a kind of sad, lopsided smile. "I don't know. I just..." he shook his head. "It's a lot. To take in. I think I kind of... stopped thinking about it. Yesterday. It was too much. But I do need to think about it. What I'm going to do about it. What I _want_ to do about it. And... my body's changed, too." He took a deep breath and sighed it out. "Do you want it to be the end?"

"I don't know either," Fenris lied. There was an instinctual protectiveness that lingered about him for Anders. He wanted to take care of this man. He had _liked_ taking care of this man. He'd thought it was just the need he had long longed to fulfill - that taking care of Anders had been a kind of surrogate for all the times he had not been allowed to follow his instincts and care for the person he had mated with. But it had been more than that.

He had liked taking care of _Anders_.

He had seen that Anders was broken in ways he had never imagined could be possible for a mage - with all the power that had been born into him. The soft life that he had imagined for mages kept in southern circles had not been so soft. Not for someone like Anders - someone who shared his need to be free.

Anders laughed, perhaps amused by the ambiguity of emotions they seemed to share. "Well," he said. "You can always try your hand at courting me. That's what all that business with the presents is for, I suppose. Giving people time to figure things out."

Fenris nodded as Anders got up from the bed and began to hunt out his things.

He allowed himself to watch the man as he dressed. It was nothing he had not seem plenty of in the last few days, after all, but it was good to have the opportunity to take it in without the haze of heat-induced desires.

Anders was tall and lean, but well-muscled. The hair hanging about his face was roughly cut, but Fenris fancied that he liked the uneven ends. A light dusting of freckles about the shoulders gave an endearing softness to what might have been quite a formidable form - tall and broad-shouldered as Anders was.

And then there was the light tracery of scars on his back.

The mage's voice came back to him, fraught with fear and anger, from the moment before he had panicked and tried to struggle away when they were tied together:

_"You've said quite enough on that subject already. I don't need to hear _right now_ how you think it's _perfectly reasonable_ to punish mages for what they _might do_ if they were free."_

The smile died on Fenris's lips. He had said that. When they lay together on the Wounded Coast and he had foolishly commented on the Right of Tranquillity - that surely it would have been better to stop a mage like Danarius before he could use magic to hurt so many people. To turn Fenris into his weapon and his pet.

 _"I would want a man like Danarius _dead,_ "_ the mage had said.

Yes. And wasn't that what Fenris wanted too?

Where was the balance between preventing one atrocity and allowing others to happen?

Anders pulled on the shirt Fenris had got him and stood up, drawing Fenris's thought back to the present.

"I guess I'll see you, then," he said, his smile perhaps uncertain, but at least friendly.

"I guess you will," Fenris replied.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry - the heat is over, but we've still got a bit to go before the end. Anders and Fenris needs some time to figure things out without the influence of hormones.

**Author's Note:**

> For those unfamiliar, this is a good introduction to the [Alpha/Beta/Omega trope](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega) in fanfiction. I've taken most of the main tropes, with the exception that alphas aren't automatically dominant and omegas aren't automatically submissive, though society can sometimes treat them that way. Everything else should hopefully be apparent from the text, but I thought I'd add a note for anyone unfamiliar as a few people have asked questions.


End file.
